August 3, 2026, 2:12 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
An iPhone survived a fall that would typically result in total destruction. The device fell from a small plane during a flight by an artist. Despite a height of about 1.1 kilometers, the device was later recovered.
iPhone Falls from Plane
According to a report by the broadcaster CBC, Heather Cline used the flight with her husband, who was piloting the aircraft, to search for new subjects for her artistic work as a photographer.
She used an iPhone 17 Pro for the shots. She had purchased the device about a month earlier after her previous smartphone and digital camera had become increasingly unreliable. Cline had already ordered a special camera grip for the iPhone. However, the accessory had not yet been delivered at the time of the flight.
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Airflow Snatches Device
The incident occurred after about 30 minutes of flight time. The couple was circling at an altitude of around 1.1 kilometers over wind turbines, traveling at more than 100 kilometers per hour.
When Cline held the smartphone out of an open window for a shot, the airflow caught the device. The iPhone was ripped from its case and fell from the plane. Within moments, it disappeared over the fields. From the air, it was impossible to determine where the smartphone had hit the ground.
Tracking Leads to Discovery in Field
However, the device was not lost. Using Apple’s “Find My” tracking feature, the location could still be accessed.
After landing, Cline and her husband drove to the indicated area and searched for the smartphone in a canola field. It was initially difficult to spot among the plants. Eventually, they found the iPhone lying on the ground after the fall, with the display facing up. To their surprise, the device appeared to have no visible damage and was still functional.
The fact that the iPhone fall resulted in no apparent damage is likely not solely due to the smartphone’s construction. The ground probably played a significant role as well. The device landed in a vegetated field rather than on asphalt, concrete, or rocks. The plants and relatively soft ground may have absorbed some of the impact energy. This makes the incident an unusual case.