An iPhone that was sucked out of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 last Friday was found not only intact, but fully functional and without a scratch. How does a phone survive a drop from an airplane? The answer is physics and a favorable point of impact.
How An iPhone Survived A 16K Foot Drop From Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 Jet
Several electronic devices were sucked out of Alaska Airlines 1282 on Friday when a plugged emergency exit door, part of the fuselage, suddenly separated shortly after takeoff with the flight climbing to 16,000 feet.
Amazingly, two phones have already been recovered and at least one of them survived the drop without any discernible damage. Yesterday, an iPhone was found in Portland, Oregon by Sean Bates while on a walk. He noticed the phone on a grassy patch on the side of the road:
https://twitter.com/SeanSafyre/status/1744138937239822685?s=20
Its battery was still at 44%!
How could an iPhone survive such a fall? The Washington Post posits two reasons:
- Physics – “Any object falling through toward Earth will reach a point, known as its terminal velocity, where the force of gravity canāt accelerate it anymore because of resistance from the air in the atmosphere.” The iPhone likely fell with its screen facing downward, causing a lot of drag that greatly slowed its descent.
- Point of impact – “The phone surely would have been damaged had it landed on stone or pavement, but the grass or foliage it seems to have fallen on cushioned its fall.”
There was also a case around the phone. Bates said he did not check the brand…that’s too bad!
Haha you were the first of many thousands to ask me that question š I honestly didn't think to check the brand before turning it in
— Seanathan Bates (@SeanSafyre) January 9, 2024
The phone was unlocked and when Bates opened it, he found an Alaska Airlines baggage receipt. He immediately contacted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which dispatched a duo to retrieve the phone and search the area a bit more closely.
CONCLUSION
An iPhone likely survived a 16,000-foot drop due to hitting grass instead of concrete. The physics helped, with resistance slowing down the speed of the phone. Whatever the reason, the phone provides another piece of the puzzle helping investigators better understand what happened on Alaska 1282.
image: @SeanSafyre / X
That’s quite an amusing tidbit. Perhaps a future headline might read “Exodus of Apple engineers hired by Boeing” …. lol
I guess returning it to its owner is out of the question? In all seriousness does the NTSb get to go through our phone if it happens to be sucked out of an airplane?
The only evidence I could understand the phone being of value to the NTSB would be the exact GPS location when the phone started plummeting, but the plane itself would have this info from the time of depressurisation. I wonder how far the phone and door were located from each other? Apple employees must be amazed by this aspect of the story, incredible really.
New Apple commercial:
An AI image of John Cameron Swayze standing next to a country road holding an iPhone, “Takes a licking but keeps on Twitting!!”
I wonder if some people are using “the find my stuff” to locate other things.
Meanwhile, back at sea level, my wife drops her iPhone from 3 feet and it turns into a brick…
Probably why Apple stock was up $4 yesterday while Boeing was down $20.
Hopefully he or she gets their $70 in baggage fees back.
iPhone was unlocked. Not a very clever owner I would say. Who does not lock its phone?
Maybe a person that has it plugged in and didn’t know it was about to be sucked out of their hands? Just a guess
Not really. Mine locks itself after a few minutes without use. That is the best way to keep your data safe.
Yeah, I thought of that after I commented!