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Apple iPhone survives 4,900-metre fall from Alaska Airlines flight that lost fuselage panel
- An iPhone landed intact, unlocked and with hours of battery life remaining on a roadside, according to a post on X
- The screen showed an email from Alaska Airlines about a baggage claim for a flight that lost a fuselage panel
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Among the harrowing details of the blown-off fuselage panel that triggered a sudden decompression event on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, one revelation seemed to defy the laws of physics: one of the mobile phones that had been sucked out of Boeing Co. 737 MAX 9 jet’s cabin remained in functioning condition after a 4,900-metre (16,000-foot) tumble.
A new-generation Apple Inc iPhone landed intact, unlocked and with hours of battery life remaining on a Portland, Oregon roadside, according to a post on X by a user calling himself Seanathan Bates, who said he discovered the device.
The screen showed an email from Alaska Airlines about a baggage claim for the flight, based on Bates’ photos.
The phone was in aeroplane mode, Bates said in a TikTok video. “It was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush and it didn’t have a screenlock on it,” he said.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed at a briefing on Sunday that one phone was found on the side of a road and another in a yard.
The people have handed in both of the devices, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters.
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“We’ll look through those and then return them” to passengers, Homendy said. “It also helps in telling us, ‘Are we looking in the right area?’”
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