Two cell phones were recovered from the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet that had an inflight explosive episode as it flew across Oregon over the weekend.
The incident occurred on Friday just as the plane was making its way to Ontario, California.
During a news conference on Sunday, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy confirmed that the devices were recovered by residents in the area where the door plug fell from the structure.
“Some community members found a cell phone in a yard and a cell phone on the side of the road and contacted us and handed them in,” she said.
One of the devides, which appears to be an iPhone, still appeared to be completely intact and functional after it dropped from 16,000 feet in the sky. The cell phone still had part of a charger attached to it.
One of those residents appeared to have posted his discovery to X, formerly Twitter, writing, “found an iPhone on the side of the road… Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282.”
They have terminal velocity like everything else. Really, it all depended on what those phones landed on/in.
Can we talk about how the phone did not have a screen lock? What?
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Face ID keeps your phone unlocked as long as you’re looking at the screen. Does that not do it for you?
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One situation is that I want my phone to show me the traffic congestion whilst I drive so I can alter my route dynamically. The screen locks every five minutes (longest setting available), but my commute is ~40 minutes.
That’s not an iPhone problem but a bug (or missing feature) in the app you’re using. Apps can disable screen lock while they are active with a single line of code. This is commonly used in video players, navigation apps, games, etc.
Hey that’s a great point. I’ll send them a note!
Depending how much you want to play around with it, you may be able to configure something with Shortcuts to get the desired behavior. I have something similar set up for screen brightness and media volume based on what WiFi networks I’m connected to or places I’m at.
Bet you they’re protecting themselves against battery life complaints. Apple Knows Best!
Not a custom lock option, but to make your life marginally easier:
There are no shortcut actions as of Mar’23 to trigger auto-lock. The closest thing I can think of (which I use personally) is this shortcut to quickly open Auto-Lock in settings menu.
So that would save a second… “Hey Siri, I’m commuting // autolock” -> the settings pop open. Source
From up that thread as well:
I always set my auto lock default to never. Then whenever I need the screen to lock automatically I’ll just toggle low power mode from control centre.
Appreciate the suggestions!
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A custom or 30 minute would be so nice honestly. That’s one setting that irks me most.
It was likely locked. There’s a thing called Live Activities that displays things like flight details on the screen even when it is locked. Its very handy.
The guy who found it said it didn’t have a screen lock: https://twitter.com/SeanSafyre/status/1744203705178845510
That’s insane
Is there a niche market of consumers that are worried about dropping their phones out of airplanes, and which phones would be best in that scenario?
I think Caterpillar makes some beefy strong phones
Otter Box makes pretty bullet-proof cases. They’re expensive, but worth it. I dropped a phone 10 stories off of a swing stage once and it was fine due to being in an Otter Box. It did break a window on the way down though, so that probably slowed it.
Blackberry
I’m pretty sure Nokia phones would still be best in that falling-16k-feet-from-an-airplane scenario.
At X altitude the classic nokia becomes a ballistic projectile… Solve for X, marketers
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New high score on that classic iOS game where you had to throw your device in the air and catch it
from what I hear from my classmate’s experiences, the most crucial information here would be the screen.
no mention in the news. cracked screen for sure.
In another article, they cited this tweet with an image of the iPhone.
https://twitter.com/SeanSafyre/status/1744138937239822685
Shockingly, the screen is intact!
nice find! thank you!
If you really want shock, read about Vesna Vulovic.
Screen was cracked before they got on the plane.
Sadly, Apple didn’t buy them a new plane.
Pretty sure Apple bought this headline though!
Naw. It’s just luck that the iPhone survived, it probably landed in grass or dirt. If the other phone had landed in the same spot I’m sure it would be fine too.
Just to be clear, in case anyone thinks that’s an impressive height: it’s the same if a smartphone falls from 50 meters or 5000 meters.
Someone calculated it here: Terminal velocity is about 17.5 m/s or 39.15 mph. The phone reaches that speed in 1.8 seconds after falling 15.6 metres.
So the height is quite irrelevant. The phone landed in soft grass so it’s not surprising that it’s undamaged. And the brand of that phone is irrelevant too. Every phone would survive that.
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-terminal-velocity-of-a-falling-iPhone?top_ans=40231160
I wonder if the charge cable was able to slow ot down or something
A phone generally doesn’t have a crazy terminal velocity. If it landed in a lawn with soil and grass, that’s about as soft a landing as you can get for the situation.
And terminal velocity is a thing
Yes it is… a thing the poster you replied to mentioned.
Yes but have you heard about terminal velocity?
Phones do not fall very fast because they tumble in the air. And this phone landed on grass.
Aligns well with my hypothesis: Apple designs their products for Americans, who treat them rough.
Sucked out by decompression. Landed away from the flight path. Hey, almost in Nike HQ.
