Imagine the situation, although anyone would say it is incredible: you are walking leisurely in the morning and you come across an iPhone 14 Pro, with its silicone case. The phone is in perfect condition but apparently Behind this discovery there is a story: it has just fallen from the sky. As can be seen in the header image, a fragment of cable is still attached to the torn charging port from which it was ejected.
Let's not forget that the iPhone 14 benefits from the latest improvements to the Ceramic Shield, the ultra-resistant glass based on ceramic nanocrystals, capable of withstanding falls from great heights. Even Gorilla Glass Victus isn't as effective. But no one had tried it at around 4,750 meters above sea levelWho would think of it?
Find a mint condition iPhone dropped from 16,000 feet
like his Sean sayswent for a morning walk on Barnes Road, just minutes from Beaverton and near the Sunset Transit Center (Portland, Oregon). It didn't take long for him to come across one of those stories that is so hard to believe that until you verify it, you can't explain it.
As he said on his TikTok profile and in the tweet published inSean looked down to the ground when he saw an iPhone in the grass. He was there, on the right side of the road, with airplane mode activated, with about half the battery and a notice to purchase additional luggage by Alaska Airlines customer service. Sean immediately contacted the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), the independent agency responsible for investigating aviation accidents.
So far the story is already curious. Finding an iPhone is already surprising, even if it's not that bad. But what's amazing is the story this iPhone has behind it: This is one of the phones carried by the passengers of the Boeing 737 Max 9 which took off for Ontario (California) and that he had to return to the Portland airport as soon as he the window broketearing off a fragment of the plane's fuselage. It was Alaska Airlines Boeing that went completely public and even delisted the company's shares from the stock market.
Although the location coincides with the surface flown over, the email was the necessary clue to clarify the ownership of the terminal: the email refers to the same flight. As you climb to cruising altitude, a certain Cuong Tran received a message from Alaska Airlines with a payment receipt for the purchase of two additional suitcases worth $70. And it turned out that the user was on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
Boeing faces a bigger problem
174 passengers on board, 6 crew members, 19 minutes of flight: a “pressurization problem” led to a request for an emergency landing, granted within a minute of the request. Passenger Kyle Rinker was most affected by this accidentthe customer closest to the affected area. There were, however, no deaths since the failure occurred, as they say, shortly after takeoff and appropriate measures were quickly taken with an emergency landing.
As far as is known, the plane was inspected in October, according to FAA Records. However, the decision prompted the United States to launch the immobilization of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by several airlines in the country. Indeed, although this aircraft model is not operated in Europe, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has also adopted the same measures.
Last summer 2024, Beoing pleaded guilty before the US Department of Justice for the two fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which resulted in two fines of $243.6 million each. Three months ago we learned that Jeff Bezos himself was studying the acquisition of the company, after a legal disaster and a strike with losses estimated at 6.1 billion dollars. Certainly, Boeing is not having its best days. However, in this accident, the iPhone came out stronger. And things are only getting better: Apple has further improved the quality of the titanium in the iPhone 16 Pro.
An older version of this article was originally published on 08/01/2024.
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