iPhone still works after falling 5,000 meters from a plane

On Friday (January 5), an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 had an emergency exit latch fail at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters, leaving a hole. The iPhone fell out through that hole.

Due to this incident, the passenger plane had to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, USA shortly after. All passengers and crew on the flight were safe.

When the latch was dislodged, several items including an iPhone, AirPods, and a boy’s shirt were swept out of the large hole. The iPhone was found by a man named Sean Bates in Washington state.

iPhone still works after 5000 meters from Alaska Airlines flight pic 1 — The iPhone remained intact after falling 5,000 meters from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on January 5. Photo: X/Seansafyre

On Sunday (January 7), Sean Bates posted a screenshot of the iPhone on social network X. The photo shows the iPhone screen intact, still displaying the baggage claim page for the Alaska Airlines flight that landed in Portland two days earlier. The phone is still in airplane mode, with 44% battery left.

Aside from the charging head being severed from the charging cord, the phone was otherwise largely intact. In a subsequent TikTok post, Bates said he found the phone “pretty clean, no scratches, under a bush.”

Bates said he contacted the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and was informed that this was the second phone found on the flight.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy responded to Bates' X post to thank him and offer to meet. "We will look at the phone and then return it," Homendy said at a press conference on Sunday, adding that she was "very, very fortunate" that the incident did not end in tragedy.

Ngoc Anh (according to AFP)

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