iPhone survives 1,000-foot plummet out of a plane, located by owner with 'Find my iPhone'

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in iPhone
The phone landed in a residential neighborhood after the incident, and was located by the owner without a scratch on it from the ordeal.

iPhone dropped from plane in Iowa


A pair of friends in Iowa took a ride in a vintage biplane in Ames, Iowa, July 3. when one of them took out her iPhone to take pictures, the phone fell out of the plane, dropping about 1,000 feet to the ground below.

According to WHO TV in Iowa the woman, Sarvinder Naberhaus, assumed the phone was gone, but upon landing she tried the Find My iPhone feature in an attempt to locate it. It didn't work the first time, but before going to buy a new phone, she tried once more.

That second try, it turned out, was successful. After following the trail for a while, Naberhaus spotted the phone in tall grass in a residential neighborhood, without a scratch, while displaying a notification about an upcoming meeting.

"I literally went into shock," said the second passenger Donna Johnson. "'I asked this is this for real? Is that the same phone?'" and I said 'this is a miracle phone, you can't drop a phone 1000 feet and have it still work!'"

Naberhouse, the author of multiple books, told the TV station that incident is proof that "God has a sense of humor."

In 2015, a Texas man claimed that he has dropped his iPhone more than 9,000 feet from a plane and he found it on the ground, still working. More recently, an iPhone 7 was found underwater, still working after a two-day, 30-foot submersion, off the coast of England.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 58
    NishiologyNishiology Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    This is awesome. Always have loved apple and will for sure love apple and iphone because of this.
    watto_cobraclaire1
  • Reply 2 of 58
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,246member
    This is awesome. Always have loved apple and will for sure love apple and iphone because of this.
    Could have been any phone, really.
    dysamoriaaylkavon b7netroxmavemufc[Deleted User]
  • Reply 3 of 58
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    Miracle of God.
    claire1
  • Reply 4 of 58
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,796member

    Naberhouse, the author of multiple books, told the TV station that incident is proof that "God has a sense of humor."

    More like, Apple engineers good products. And, I'm sure the grass softened the landing by quite a bit if it was tall grass. 
    edited July 2018 redgeminipadysamoriabaconstangnetroxwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 58
    My 26 months old daughter play my iPhone 6 for over a year, and the phone still work, as I type this comment by it, this is a real miracle.
    Give a Samsumg to a 12 -24 mths baby, you will realize how tough the iPhone is :DDD 
    baconstangwatto_cobrafrantisek
  • Reply 6 of 58
    3GS_is-me3GS_is-me Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    raymondai said:
    My 26 months old daughter play my iPhone 6 for over a year, and the phone still work, as I type this comment by it, this is a real miracle.
    Give a Samsumg to a 12 -24 mths baby, you will realize how tough the iPhone is :DDD 
    Guess it’s too hard to say your 2 year old... no one cares about the months.. 
    dysamoriamazda 3sJaiOh81fastasleepStrangeDays
  • Reply 7 of 58
    Player 1Player 1 Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    This phone falls 1000 feet and no problem. Mine falls 4 feet and i can't type unless I'm willing to get cut. 
    dysamoriaJaiOh81SoundJudgmentClock_Nova[Deleted User]
  • Reply 8 of 58
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    Landed in a residential neighborhood? Good thing it didn’t hit someone in the head. Who pulls out a phone in a fast moving aerial open cockpit anyway?
  • Reply 9 of 58
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,312member
    Miracle, no. Physics and product design, yes.

    The force that needed to be dissipated to prevent damage when the phone landed is deterministic using Newton's Second Law (f=ma). This has variability within a range of values affected by the air resistance of the falling phone. Next, the tall grass and ground obviously dissipated additional force. The remaining force was then applied to the phone at the point of final impact. The damage resulting from the terminal impact varies by how the phone actually stuck the ground versus the phone design's vulnerability to damage at different force levels and at different strike points on the phone.

    In this case the physics and phone design combined to make the 1000 foot fall survivable despite the drop height. The phone's owner might drop the same phone next week from 3 feet on to a granite curb and the phone's screen completely shatter. The same physics and how it relates to the phone design would still apply.
    Solinetroxwatto_cobragatorguypscooter63[Deleted User]
  • Reply 10 of 58
    roakeroake Posts: 809member
    This is awesome. Always have loved apple and will for sure love apple and iphone because of this.
    Could have been any phone, really.
    But it wasn’t.  ;-)
    GeorgeBMacRayz2016watto_cobrapscooter63claire1
  • Reply 11 of 58
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Wonder what consumer reports has to say about that.

    landing in the grass helped a lot.

    I beat Samsung tries to turn this into negative.
    edited July 2018 GeorgeBMacwatto_cobraexceptionhandlerclaire1
  • Reply 12 of 58
    roakeroake Posts: 809member
    3GS_is-me said:
    raymondai said:
    My 26 months old daughter play my iPhone 6 for over a year, and the phone still work, as I type this comment by it, this is a real miracle.
    Give a Samsumg to a 12 -24 mths baby, you will realize how tough the iPhone is :DDD 
    Guess it’s too hard to say your 2 year old... no one cares about the months.. 
    Parents care.  I guess you’ve not had a child.
    GeorgeBMacwatto_cobrapscooter63
  • Reply 13 of 58
    3GS_is-me said:
    raymondai said:
    My 26 months old daughter play my iPhone 6 for over a year, and the phone still work, as I type this comment by it, this is a real miracle.
    Give a Samsumg to a 12 -24 mths baby, you will realize how tough the iPhone is :DDD 
    Guess it’s too hard to say your 2 year old... no one cares about the months.. 
    guess it’s too many post in some parents group,
    sometimes they need the precise months age of the kids to reply my question..XDD
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 58
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    This is awesome. Always have loved apple and will for sure love apple and iphone because of this.
    Could have been any phone, really.
    If you mean in terms of impact, I agree that that impact resistance is within a threshold that we know this iPhone didn't get stopped by cement or asphalt. But I do wonder how many Android phones have a built-in GPS locater system as part of the OS that users set up? Sure, the phone company or emergency services could narrow it down, but what about the user without their direct assistance? Is a Find my iPhone-like feature as commonplace for Android as it is for iOS?
    watto_cobrapscooter63claire1
  • Reply 15 of 58
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    3GS_is-me said:
    raymondai said:
    My 26 months old daughter play my iPhone 6 for over a year, and the phone still work, as I type this comment by it, this is a real miracle.
    Give a Samsumg to a 12 -24 mths baby, you will realize how tough the iPhone is :DDD 
    Guess it’s too hard to say your 2 year old... no one cares about the months.. 
    Yo don't care about the months—when how a child acts is highly determinable within the early months—but do you really care about the age or sex or child or this anecdote at all? My guess is you don't, so why comment at all?
    GeorgeBMacmbenz1962
  • Reply 16 of 58
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,796member
    This is awesome. Always have loved apple and will for sure love apple and iphone because of this.
    Could have been any phone, really.
    You don't actually know that. Nice assumption though!
    watto_cobrapscooter63
  • Reply 17 of 58
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,796member

    Player 1 said:
    This phone falls 1000 feet and no problem. Mine falls 4 feet and i can't type unless I'm willing to get cut. 
    Morale of the story...make sure when it falls, it lands in the grass, not on a solid surface. :wink: 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 58
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    3GS_is-me said:
    raymondai said:
    My 26 months old daughter play my iPhone 6 for over a year, and the phone still work, as I type this comment by it, this is a real miracle.
    Give a Samsumg to a 12 -24 mths baby, you will realize how tough the iPhone is :DDD 
    Guess it’s too hard to say your 2 year old... no one cares about the months.. 
    I'm 68 years and 2 weeks old.   Deal with it.
    Solimacsince1988watto_cobrapscooter63claire1
  • Reply 19 of 58
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    "I literally went into shock"

    No, you didn't. And no, you don't know what literally means.

    Landing on grass, in tall grass, helped big time. On concrete or asphalt, it would have been upgrade time.  I don't know if the pic is of the actual phone, but a case would possibly have helped some.


    She slipped the surly bonds of earth, put out her hand and touched the face of God.

    And He slapped the phone out of her hand for trying to take a selfie with Him.

    A sense of humor indeed. 


    radarthekatwatto_cobraking editor the grate[Deleted User]
  • Reply 20 of 58
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,783member
    I wonder what the terminal velocity of an iPhone is? You should be able to determine this with a vertical wind tunnel without risking the phone. Do they still do Science Fair projects in school? This would be perfect for a high school student wanting to go to college for Physics or Aeronautics.
    watto_cobra
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