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iPhone Falls 1,000 Feet From An Airplane. Survives.

Posted in iPhone on 23/03/2011 by Cormac Moylan

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There is no parachute app for the iPhone. And with good reason.

There is no need for one.

Ron Walker, an airman from the US Air Force, found himself in the unfortunate position of dropping his iPhone 4 from 1,000 foot above the skies.

From TUAW comes the story of exactly how Walker dropped his iPhone.

Airman Walker’s duties as a jump master require him to ensure that his aircraft is the the proper location before sending parachute jumpers into the air. One week ago (on March 16), he stuck his body out of the open door to look for landmarks as the plane sped through the air at 130 knots (about 150 m.p.h.). As he did, the Velcro seal on his pocket flew open, and out popped his iPhone. Airman Walker could do nothing but watch it fall away from the plane; he assumed it was lost forever, not to mention destroyed by the fall.

He was wrong though.

One of his colleagues used the Find My iPhone App and they managed to track down Walker’s iPhone, protected only by a Griffin case, in a woodland a couple of miles away from their location.

The condition of the iPhone? Perfect. “Not a scratch on it, not even dirty,” claimed Walker.

Warning: If you have an airplane we suggest not testing whether or not your iPhone survives a similar fate as Walker’s iPhone.

  • miguel

    Once an object stops accelerating, the impact is not going to be as bad as if it was accelerating. The iphone simply reached a terminal velocity and because of its shape (air resistance) and the addition of the case, it was able to survive.

  • Chris

    When I saw the title, I thought maybe my story had made it to the public…alas, it was about someone else.

    When I owned my first iPhone in July 2007, I took it up with me when I was flying an ultralight open-cockpit aircraft in TX. Somewhere around 800-900 feet, my button on my cargo shorts came undone and out slipped my iPhone.

    When I got on the ground, I had no way of finding it except by calling it and listening for the ring…

    I called it and the phone went through the full ring cycle and not straight to voicemail…meaning the phone was actually receiving calls. But with miles of land to cover, I was SOL. I then paid $500 for a new one.

    The phone likely survived…otherwise it wouldn't have rung…

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Cormac Moylan

Cormac is the head honcho behind MacTrast. Based in Cork, Ireland, his first foray into the Apple world was way back in 2006 when he purchased an iMac followed by a Macbook around 4 weeks later. He currently owns a Macbook Pro, iMac, Mac Mini, iPhone 4, iPod Touch, Apple TV, and has more than 30 pairs of shoes. He is also the Head of Digital at VisiTravel - a company that lists hotels in Ireland on their GoIreland site and offer cheap car hire through NovaCarHire.