iPhone survives 16,000-foot fall from Alaska Airlines flight, works perfect

An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Oregon on Friday after a window and chunk of its fuselage blew out, while shattering the window and causing several items to be sucked out mid-air. Amongst those, was an iPhone that was discovered unaffected by the high-speed descent, working perfectly fine.

Hyderabad: An iPhone miraculously survived a 16,000-foot fall from Alaska Airlines ASA 1282, a Boeing 737-9 MAX flying from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California on January 5.

The National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB), an independent US government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation, which confirmed the incident, stating that a shattered window caused several items, including phones, to be sucked out mid-air. The agency also revealed that this is the second iPhone found in working condition, an earlier one was discovered after the fall.

An X(formerly Twitter) user, who goes by the name Seanathan Bates, posted on his social media handle claiming the discovery of the iPhone. "Found an iPhone on the side of the road… Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282 Survived a 16,000-foot drop perfectly intact! When I called it in, Zoe at @NTSB said it was the SECOND phone to be found. No door yet,” the post read.

Seanathan Bates shared images of the iPhone on social media, emphasising its survival intact with half a battery and in airplane mode, open to a baggage claim for Alaska Airlines ASA1282. From the images shared by Bates, it seems difficult to identify the model of the iPhone, however, it can be predicted that it could be either an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro, due to rounded cornered screen following a curved design.

The iPhone, still in flight mode and SOS mode, was found by Bates while walking down Barnes Road. The device appeared unaffected by the high-speed descent.

Alaska Airlines faced an emergency on Saturday after one of its doors blew open mid-air, just after take-off. The videos taken by the passengers show the mid-cabin exit door had completely separated from the aircraft. The airline responded to the incident by grounding its fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft.

The incident occurred shortly after takeoff, causing a cabin depressurization. Despite the plane climbing to 16,000 feet, it safely returned to Portland International Airport with 174 passengers and six crew members. The airline is yet to locate the window that fell from the aircraft during the mid-air incident.

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