iPhone survives 16,000-foot fall from Alaska Airlines flight intact

A man in Oregon found an iPhone that appears to have survived the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 emergency without as much as a scratch.

The phone was found outside Portland by game designer Seanathan Bates, who said he went for a walk in response to a public appeal from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

“Wanted an excuse to go on a walk this afternoon, and the NTSB had asked people to go and report anything that looks like it had fallen out of the recent Alaska Airlines accident,” Bates said in a TikTok video posted late on Sunday (January 7th).

Bates said he found a phone sitting on the side of the road and was “skeptical” at first that it might have endured a 16,000-foot fall from the plane.

“It was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush,” Bates said.

The phone was not locked, however, so Bates could open it. “It was in airplane mode with a travel confirmation and baggage claim for Alaska 1282. So I had to call the NTSB,” he said.

Bates shared the pictures of the phone on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing a device in what seems to be good condition, as well as a baggage claim message and NTSB officers on the scene.

Bates said he was told by NTSB it was the second phone from the plane that was found.

Shortly after, the door plug – a key missing item – was also found in Oregon by a local teacher named Bob. According to the NTSB, the door ended up in the man’s backyard in Portland.

On January 5th, the Boeing 737 Max 9 made an emergency landing minutes into its flight from Portland after a section of the plane detached.

None of the 177 passengers and crew on board were seriously injured during the incident.