iPhone survives 16,000 foot drop from Alaska Airlines flight where panel ripped off
Two cell phones were recovered from the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet that had an inflight explosive episode as it flew across Oregon over the weekend.
The incident occurred on Friday just as the plane was making its way to Ontario, California.
During a news conference on Sunday, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy confirmed that the devices were recovered by residents in the area where the door plug fell from the structure.
“Some community members found a cell phone in a yard and a cell phone on the side of the road and contacted us and handed them in,” she said.
One of the devides, which appears to be an iPhone, still appeared to be completely intact and functional after it dropped from 16,000 feet in the sky. The cell phone still had part of a charger attached to it.
One of those residents appeared to have posted his discovery to X, formerly Twitter, writing, “found an iPhone on the side of the road… Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282.”
Can we talk about how the phone did not have a screen lock? What?
Let me complain here about the screen lock settings on iOS.
The iOS settings for the phone's screen auto-lock has 30-seconds, 1-min, 2-min, 3-min, 4-min, 5-min and never.
There are many scenarios for me where 5 minutes is just too damn short. Ergo, I'll never use the 1-4-min settings. This is just a dumb set of options IMHO. Why is there not a 10/15/20-min setting?
So, I end up setting it to never auto-lock as this annoys me somewhat less. Still quite annoying, but this would explain why my phone might still be unlocked after being blasted out the new airlock.
Face ID keeps your phone unlocked as long as you're looking at the screen. Does that not do it for you?
No. I don't use Face ID nor would it work for the below scenario.
One situation is that I want my phone to show me the traffic congestion whilst I drive so I can alter my route dynamically. The screen locks every five minutes (longest setting available), but my commute is ~40 minutes.
I should just change it each time I am commuting, but I end up leaving it b/c lazy and I do have other instances of desiring longer lock times.
Honestly, how hard would it be to have a custom lock screen time available?
That’s not an iPhone problem but a bug (or missing feature) in the app you’re using. Apps can disable screen lock while they are active with a single line of code. This is commonly used in video players, navigation apps, games, etc.
Hey that’s a great point. I’ll send them a note!
Depending how much you want to play around with it, you may be able to configure something with Shortcuts to get the desired behavior. I have something similar set up for screen brightness and media volume based on what WiFi networks I’m connected to or places I’m at.
Bet you they’re protecting themselves against battery life complaints. Apple Knows Best!
Not a custom lock option, but to make your life marginally easier:
So that would save a second… “Hey Siri, I’m commuting // autolock” -> the settings pop open. Source
From up that thread as well:
Appreciate the suggestions!
Keeping a recipe up while cooking for 20+ minutes is something I do frequently. Seems the iPhone would kinda annoying to try to use for this. Android has a 30m option and that's just fine.
A custom or 30 minute would be so nice honestly. That’s one setting that irks me most.
It was likely locked. There's a thing called Live Activities that displays things like flight details on the screen even when it is locked. Its very handy.
The guy who found it said it didn't have a screen lock: https://twitter.com/SeanSafyre/status/1744203705178845510
That’s insane