Take That Apple Haters: Man Whose iPhone Was Sucked Out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 STILL WORKS

Slow news day in the world of dumb stories I can stretch out into 400+ words. But I stumbled upon this one on Reddit. Considering I wrote the original Alaska Airlines flight 1282 blog, I thought why not give a follow up on one of the passengers.

If you're unfamiliar with this story, in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Ontario, California, a whole side of the plan came straight off. I believe it was a plugged emergency exit door that just popped right off the side of the plane. Miraculously the pilot was able to turn the plane around and land safely without anybody being seriously hurt. That still makes no sense to me. I would have thought everybody in that plane would be dead, but good for the pilot. When the side of the plane fell off, a whole bunch of people's belongings got sucked out of the plane. Here's the original blog if you're looking for more details.

It's one of the more unbelievable stories of plane travel I've ever heard. So unbelievable that you almost want to be woke to it. It doesn't seem real. And what's even more unbelievable than the fact that nobody died is the fact that a passenger named Cuong Tran, who's iPhone flew right out the side of the plane, had that very phone returned to him in working condition. 

Tran was sitting in Seat 27A of the Alaska flight when a door plug burst off the side of the aircraft on Friday night, causing what National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy later referred to as “explosive decompression.”

But miraculously, on Wednesday, Tran got his iPhone 14 back, sent to him by Alaska Airlines, and the phone was still working.

Suck on that Bill Gates. Suck on that my friend's older brother who always shamed me for having an iPhone because Android's interface is customizable and overall more user friendly. Could your Google Picture 8 survive being dropped out of a plane? 

I guess maybe. I imagine nobody has ever tested it. But that's a W for Apple anyway you slice it. Cuong Tran's iPhone surviving a 3-mile free fall out the side of a commercial flight seems impossible. How could that have happened? Are iPhones like squirrels where they don't reach terminal velocity? Did is phone land in some sort of foam pit at an outdoor skate park? If that phone would have landed on someone's head, it would have went straight through their skull, correct? How can a phone traveling that fast and not smash into a million pieces as soon as it hits the earth, no matter what surface it lands on. The screen isn't even cracked (picture in story). I get nervous to look at my phone when I drop my iPhone on the ground from waist level. But based on this story I guess I have nothing to worry about.

Alaska Airlines even bothering to return his phone in the first place is kind of hilarious. I'm sure a good samaritan just turned in the phone. But I like to imagine a team of interns being dispatched to a random neighborhood in Oregon to search for stra. Linking arms and sweeping the area like they're looking for a dead body.

You have to think Tran chalked up that phone as lost when he watched it get sucked out of the side of his plane. Hats off to Alaska Airlines customer service for that one. I'm sure Tran having his phone returned was a nice little cherry on top of the $50 Visa card they probably gave each passenger as an apology for nearly killing them. 

Apple gets a lot of shit for the way they design their products. The way they seem to design their phones to start acting up whenever the newest model drops. The way they keep changing their charging portal for no reason other than to force people to buy more compatible Apple products. But apparently they're structurally sound. Well done, Tim Apple. You did it again.