Alaska Airlines explosion: Passenger remembers “gaping hole” in plane
The door plug on an Alaska Airlines plane exploded shortly after takeoff, causing the FAA to temporarily ground more than 150 planes for inspection.
Even as serious questions arose as to why a door plug flew off one of Alaska Airlines' new Boeing jets last week, forcing an emergency landing, one question was on the minds of many cell phone users: How on earth did an iPhone fall? 16,000 feet from the plane and survive unscathed?
There has been a lot of discussion and speculation on social media channels about how the phone could have still been functional and whether its survival might be used in an advertising campaign. USA TODAY reached out to two scientists who explained how physics played a role.
David Rakestraw, a senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, works with students as part of the lab's science and mathematics education program. He often speaks with students about cell phones, phone drop tests, and how students can conduct sophisticated experiments with their phones.
In this case, at least three things likely worked in the phone's favor, Rakestraw explained.
First, phone manufacturers have been working to make phones increasingly stronger given the number of drops our mobile devices are subjected to from much shorter distances. Phone cases and screen protectors also help cushion a phone if it falls, he said. Finally, the location of the phone's crash landing may have made all the difference.
A man from Vancouver, Washington, Sean Bates, Posted on X that he found the iPhone on Sunday after the National Transportation Safety Board asked residents in the area to look for parts that might have fallen from the jet during the emergency.
Bates told a local television station that he found the phone on a road under a bush. He said the phone was still in airplane mode and the screen still showed a baggage receipt for the Alaska Airlines flight.
Bates turned the phone over to the NTSB, and on Monday, Safety Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy posted a message on X to Bates thanking him for his help.
The exact model of the phone or the case manufacturer is not yet known.
When something moving is dropped, it has momentum — mass times speed, Rakestraw said. What matters is when the object stops and what stops it. He compared it to the difference between hitting a wall and falling onto a pillow. The cushion slows the impact for a longer period of time than the wall.
For this reason, cars and trucks are equipped with airbags that absorb force and slow the impact. This is also why race tracks are equipped with Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers to protect drivers by absorbing and reducing energy when a race car hits a wall.
Phone cases are made of a material that bends a little and gives in on impact, he said. “It has the ability to crunch a little.”
According to Lou Bloomfield, a physics professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, the iPhone certainly reached its top speed early in the fall. That means its downward speed increased until the upward force of air resistance, also known as air resistance, “balanced the downward force of gravity (the weight of the iPhone), so the iPhone stopped accelerating downward and simply coasted at a constant speed said Bloomfield.
The iPhone may have fallen over as it fell, so it faced more air resistance, he said, estimating that the phone's speed “wasn't all that fast – probably less than 100 miles per hour and maybe significantly less.”
In experiments with falling pennies, pennies tumbled and reached a terminal velocity of about 25 miles per hour, Bloomfield said. “A dropped iPhone should flop down like a big penny, faster than a penny, but not so fast that it can't take a hit on soft grass,” he said.
A crucial factor is where the phone fell. If it had fallen just a few feet to the side and hit the road instead of the bushes, the outcome could have been very different, Rakestraw said. “The phone got lucky when it hit a natural environment where the dynamics were slower.”
It's likely that as the phone fell, it hit the branches and bounced back and forth, further absorbing the impact of the fall long before the phone hit the ground, he said.
“Phones are designed to pick up a pretty strong pulse,” he said. “We are trying to let this impulse take place over a longer period of time.”
Worst case scenario is that the corner of the phone hits something hard.
Rakestraw and the students don't just study what happens when someone drops a cell phone. The lab works with students on a program to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the country.
The lab has developed a website with thousands of pages of experiments that students can perform using their smartphones, he said. Cell phones “enable students in even the country’s poorest high schools to conduct better experiments” than at some of the best universities.