Apple iPhone Put Through Ultimate Drop Test From Harrowing Alaska Airlines Incident
On January 5th at approximately 7:13 p.m., the door on the side of ASA1282, a Boeing 737 Max 9, blew off and plummeted 16,300 feet to the ground. Over the next ten minutes, the plane would dive roughly 10,000 feet to get into a pattern to land back at Portland. Thankfully, there was no one in the seat next to the window, but a mother and son were in the middle and aisle seat, according to reports of the incident.
While the door ended up landing in someone’s backyard, that was not the only thing to be ripped from the plane when the depressurization event occurred. It would seem that multiple phones were also sucked out, and one of them was found in working condition after the fall. X user Seanathan Bates posted a picture of the phone, which was still in airplane mode and had a baggage claim email open. This, if verified, may prove to be the highest drop test of an iPhone (or any smartphone) ever.
Bates also noted that when talking to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), this was supposedly the second phone found. It is unknown whether or not the other phone survived, but regardless, one phone surviving is pretty impressive. We’d like to know what case that is, too, as it may have done much of the heavy lifting.
Of course, this is all secondary to passenger safety. And fortunately, there were no casualties from this harrowing incident. Alaska Airlines did say "several guests onboard experienced injuries that required medical attention," adding that "all guests have now been medically cleared."
