Man Finds iPhone that Likely Fell 16,000 Feet from Alaska Airlines Plane that Made Emergency Landing

A Portland, Oregon, man claims to have found an iPhone that fell out of an Alaska Airlines flight that made an emergency landing in the city on Friday after a large section of the plane exploded mid-air.

Sean Bates common pictures device X on Sunday, writing that he found it on the side of Barnes Road in Portland.

In the post, he said the phone is “still in airplane mode with half battery and open for baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282.”

“Survived a 16,000-foot drop perfectly intact!” he added.

NTSB via Getty

Barnes ended the post by noting that when he contacted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the emergency, he was told it was the second phone from the flight that had been found in the area.

An NTSB spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday that the iPhone found by Bates was one of the recovered phones believed to be from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, and has since been turned over to the airline.

NTSB via Getty

In a video he shared with TikTok, Barnes explained in more detail what led him to the discovery.

“I wanted an excuse to go for a walk this afternoon, and the NTSB asked people to go and report anything that looked like it fell out of the recent Alaska Airlines crash,” he says in the recording.

Getty

“I found a phone by the side of the road that supposedly fell from 16,000 feet,” he continues. “And of course, I was a little skeptical at first. I thought this could have just been thrown out of the car or someone had dropped it while they were running. It was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush, and it didn’t have a lock on it. screen, so I opened it up and it was in airplane mode with a travel confirmation and baggage claim for Alaska 1282, so I had to go call the NTSB.”

At a news conference Sunday, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said a missing door stopper that could be crucial to the investigation into the cause of the explosion was found in the yard of another Portland-area resident.

“I’m excited to announce that we found the door stopper,” she said, identifying the occupant as a school teacher named Bob.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was en route to California when it made an emergency landing in Portland.

The plane, a 65 Boeing 737-9, had just taken off for Ontario, Calif., from Portland when it “experienced an incident,” according to an Alaska Airlines press release.

An Alaska Airlines plane made an emergency landing in Portland after part of the plane exploded in mid-air

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty

Photos and video of the trip, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, obtained by Portland news outlet KPTV, show a large portion of the plane’s fuselage missing, at one point with the night sky visible through an opening in the cabin, as well as passengers wearing oxygen masks .

“Part of the plane took off not even 20 minutes before our flight??” wrote one passenger via a clip from the flight that he shared with the outlet.

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“Everyone on the plane is fine,” she wrote in a later part of the video, adding, “Luckily no one was sitting next to” the part that flew away.

According to Alaska Airlines, “this type of event is rare” and they are currently “investigating what happened.” They also temporarily grounded part of their fleet to carry out maintenance checks.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education