A recent incident in Canada featured an iPhone 17 Pro, accidentally plummeting from a small aircraft in flight.
Surprisingly, after a free fall of over a kilometer, the smartphone was found intact and fully functional inside a field, adding to the series of incredible extreme survival cases.
iPhone 17 Pro Survives an Unplanned Flight
In recent years, international headlines have reported numerous episodes at the edge of the unbelievable regarding smartphone durability.
We have read about a Pixel 8 that remained for four days at the bottom of a hot tub, a Galaxy S23 Ultra recovered still intact after five hours spent under the Arctic ice and, naturally, the iPhone sucked out from the exterior during the Alaska Airlines plane door incident.
Today, adding to this list of exceptional events, a misadventure occurred in the skies over the Saskatchewan region. Photographer Heather Cline was aboard a Cessna aircraft piloted by her husband, David Stanchuk, aiming to take pictures of the landscape below.
Approaching the open window, a strong gust of wind suddenly snagged her new iPhone 17 Pro, violently tearing it from the lanyard-equipped case.
The Surprise Find
In a fraction of a second, the device began its fall toward the ground from an altitude of about 1.1 km. Once safely landed, the two spouses did not give up and immediately used the “Dov’è” function provided by Apple to try to locate the phone’s signal.
The GPS coordinates led them to a nearby cultivated canola field. The owner expected to find only shards of glass and irrecoverable metal hidden among the vegetation.
To great astonishment, however, the device lay on the ground with the screen facing upward, gently resting on the stems of the plants. There was no visible damage, the glass was intact and even the 48 MP cameras showed no superficial scratches. The smartphone responded perfectly to commands, preserving 100% of its functionality.
The result of this impact, as incredible as it may seem, is perfectly sensible. During a prolonged descent, flat objects tend to stabilize thanks to air resistance, which slows their terminal velocity.
Additionally, the impact surface played a crucial role: landing on soft ground, covered by dense crops, allows absorbing kinetic energy in a much more effective and gradual way than an impact on asphalt or concrete.
