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.”
Aha, there’s source of the problem. Those phones weren’t set to airplane mode.
“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.”
Sucked out by decompression. Landed away from the flight path. Hey, almost in Nike HQ.
Sadly, Apple didn’t buy them a new plane.
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.
Aligns well with my hypothesis: Apple designs their products for Americans, who treat them rough.
Can we talk about how the phone did not have a screen lock? What?
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
Face ID keeps your phone unlocked as long as you’re looking at the screen. Does that not do it for you?