Posted on 01/10/2024 2:33:36 AM PST by Red Badger
One of the most staggering things to come out of the mid-flight incident in which the door of an Alaskan Airlines flight ripped off moments after take-off is that one passenger’s iPhone was allegedly found under a bush in working condition after plummeting 16,000 feet.
This is wild because other iPhones have been unable to survive getting knocked off the table.
According to CBS News, a man named Sean Bates stumbled across a phone sitting under a bush in Washington. He said that the phone was in airplane mode and was displaying a baggage receipt for Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. That’s the same flight that had that whole issue with the door flying off.
Bates also said that when he called the NTSB to report the phone, an NTSB representative named Zoe told him that this was the second phone from the flight that had been called in.
Now, this would be a weird thing to make up, but people make up all kinds of weird things in a bid to go viral.
An iPhone that has cracked in half. Who knows how it happened but it probably just fell off of a kitchen counter. (Getty Images) Notoriously Fragile iPhones Couldn’t Survive That… Could It? What surprised me is that I never considered iPhones to be particularly robust. I’ve had several but I haven’t broken one. However, I did have an iPod Touch take a fatal dip in the toilet on January 2, 2012. The only reason I can remember that is because it happened on the same day the Flyers lost to the Rangers in the Winter Classic. That day sucked.
The reason I’ve got an otherwise perfect record of unbroken iPhones is that I treat them with immense care. I act like I’m carrying a Faberge egg in my pocket.
I’ve known people who have had to spend hours at the T-Mobile store because their phone fell off a counter. I’ve known some bumped into something with it in their pocket and it ended catastrophically. My own brother broke a phone by forgetting it was in his pocket and wading into the ocean.
This is to say that when I think of the iPhone, the word “rugged” doesn’t pop into my head.
That was why I got suspicious when I heard about this phone that plummeted several miles and came out unscathed.
But it turns out it might be a little more believable than I thought,
That Phone May Not Have Been Going As Fast As You Think
However, according to Duncan Watts, from the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo, that 16,000-foot free-fall may not have had the phone in question moving as fast as you might think.
Watts told The Washington Post that an iPhone’s terminal velocity — its maximum speed before it stops accelerating while freefalling — is only about 30 miles per hour under normal conditions.
“The larger the iPhone, the lower the terminal velocity,” Watts explained. “The maximum is around 100 mph, but that would only happen if the phone’s screen was perpendicular to the ground.”
Of course, you’d have to assume that a phone that was sucked out of a fuselage at 16,000 wasn’t dropping straight down, perpendicular to the ground.
Hitting the ground at 30mph is still a hefty wack for something made mostly of glass. However, if it’s got a decent case and hits the ground right, it seems like it could survive.
Now, who knows if Bates is telling the truth or pulling a stunt. All we know is that a phone making it through a fall like that might be more plausible than we think.
Could it be a hoax?......................
My experience is that, a phone is more durable if it lands flat than if it lands on a corner.
Maybe it hit branches that slowed its fall?
Or maybe it hit soft ground.
Everything has a terminal velocity and the terminal velocity of this phone may be sufficiently slow that it didn’t provide enough force to break the phone.
My wife’s phone broke in her back pocket when she bent down to do some gardening..........................
I think that’s what happened. The pics show it on a roadside path in some weeds and bushes, so it probably was slowed by the greenery.................
Everyone has been focused on the supposed survival of the phone, not the infinitely more bizarre luck of someone happening upon it.
And so soon after the incident.
Maybe it’s legit, but that was a red flag for me. That and the screen being open to the AA message.
Alright, boys and girls, let’s discuss physics and the differences in force between a corner of a phone landing on a hard tile bathroom floor and a phone landing in tall grass...
Or... It just happened to land flat when it hit.
I was wondering about the survival of the phones.
Find it strange of the location it was found, so soon with still a charge. Wouldn’t cold weather have depleted it sooner? or did falling 16,000 feet recharge it?
FRAGILE OR ROBUST? IPHONE ALLEGEDLY SURVIVES FALL FROM 16,000 FEET BUT YOURS WILL BREAK AFTER FALLING IN THE TOILET OR OFF A TABLE
—
One had a very good case, the other had no case at all.
DING DING DING - We have a winner!
Alright, boys and girls, let’s discuss physics and the differences in force between a corner of a phone landing on a hard tile bathroom floor and a phone landing in tall grass...
We have a winner!
—
Will Freepmail with the address to send the check
An iPhone without a CASE is just pre-cracked waiting to be post-cracked. Bad cases will permit corner cracking if the fall is from high enough, and face down on a sharp or hard pointed or elevated object, not a flat surface like the floor will crack the screen. Look at the depth of the raised side of your case to get an idea of its ability to protect the phone if it hits face down. The lower the ridge, the less protection.
The last time I purchased a brand, new phone, on the very first day, even as I was logged on to find the perfect protective case for it, I got off the toilet, and it slid out of the breast pocket of my shirt landed on the floor, only 3 feet away, and cracked the stupid face.
I couldn’t believe it.
Like the writer, I usually handle my phone as if it were indeed a Faberge egg I just did not have the time to purchase the perfect case for it, which I usually do
Lesson learned
If I ever buy another iPhone in the future (or phone of any kind) I will treat it with the care I would use as if it were the smallpox virus, I would have a glove box, a door with positive ventilation, and a hazmat suit.
It wasn’t that I can’t live without the phone it’s just that the damn things cost so much to buy , if you buy one that has the storage and capability you need and it seems wasteful to break it so easily.
I did have my first iPhone 24 hours, it fell out of my shirt pocket onto the driveway and cracked the screen.
Every one I have owned since has had a protective cover. I wouldn’t be without one. Gotta protect my investment, and I really need the phone, I have a lot of important contacts (doctors and pharmacy) to protect.
The company that made the protective case has to be upset that they aren’t getting the credit.
Apple planted the phone, then blew the door.
For the free advertising.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.