In the early days of the iPhone, you’d be lucky if the phone’s screen survived a fall from your lap to the living room carpet. Fast forward a couple of decades and you can drop them out of planes and pick them up looking and working pristinely.
That’s according to a Canadian couple in the province of Saskatchewan, who took the iPhone 17 Pro on a photography flight only for it to be sucked from the case and sent crashing 1.1km (just over half a mile) to the earth.
In an post on Instagram, CBC reports Heather Cline was taking photos from her husband David’s plane when the unfortunate incident occurred. The other half and pilot was able to get approximation of the phone’s location via the Find My app. That proved it was still operational. Once the pair got to ground, they tracked it down in canola field – case-free, in perfect working order and without a scratch.
“So, I have a cheesy little label case that I stuck the phone in and David was kinda looking at me [quizzically] and I was like ‘no, no’ this will work, I’ll wear the lapel,” Heather said. “So we’re out flying and circling the wind turbines and getting these great pictures. But I hadn’t got used to where the lenses are yet. I’m playing with angles and I go a little too far. We have a photographic window and the airstream sucked the phone right out of the case.”
David chimed in: “So I said Let’s go home and get in the truck and go look for it.”
Sure enough, there it was in the middle of the canola field, detected by that familiar Find My tone that always brings a sense of relief. It’s a testament to the improved durability of the phones these days. Obviously it’s a softer landing than the concrete, and a slightly different landing angle might have seen a different outcome.
