iPhone from Alaska Airlines found still working after falling 5km

Sean Bates shared how he discovered the phone was from an Alaska Airlines passenger onboard ASA1282 and how the phone fared in the fall. Photo / Sean Bates

A man claims to have found an iPhone that survived a 5km drop from an Alaska Airlines plane after part of the fuselage was torn from the aircraft on January 5.

Sean Bates, of Washington state, shared a video on TikTok about the discovery he made while walking Barnes Rd.

In the video posted on January 8, Bates said he went for a walk after hearing an announcement from the National Transportation Safety Board asking people in the area to keep an eye out for objects that may have fallen from the aircraft.

“I found a phone sitting on the side of the road that had apparently fallen 16,000ft (about 5km),” he said. “I was, of course, a little sceptical at first,” he added, saying he thought it had been thrown out of a car or dropped by someone waking by.

Found an iPhone on the side of the road... Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282 Survived a 16,000 foot drop perfectly in tact!

When I called it in, Zoe at @NTSB said it was the SECOND phone to be found. No door yet😅 pic.twitter.com/CObMikpuFd

— Seanathan Bates (@SeanSafyre) January 7, 2024

Bates said it was “still pretty clean” and there were “no scratches on it”.

Fortunately, the phone did not have a passcode or screen lock, so he opened it. Sure enough, the phone was set to airplane mode and the most recently opened app was a baggage claim app for Alaska Airlines ASA1282.

Bates also shared his discovery to X (formerly Twitter).

“Thing got *yanked* out the door,” Bates wrote, “... survived a 16,000 foot drop perfect in tact!”

The phone was pulled out of the aircraft with such force, it still had a chunk of the charger in its charging port.

The phone still had a section of the charger inside it. Photo / SeanSafyre

Bates then called the National Transportation Safety Board to inform it about the phone. An agent called Zoe from the federal agency told Bates it was the second phone people had found from the plane.

The Alaska Airlines flight had part of its fuselage and a window blow out mid-flight and made an emergency landing in Oregon last Friday.

A voice recording of the pilot announcing the emergency was also released, revealing how pilots sound during an unplanned issue of this scale.