“I found a phone sitting on the side of the road that had apparently fallen 16,000 feet,” Bates said in a video recorded for social media Sunday.

He said he was “a little skeptical” when he first found it, thinking perhaps it may have been tossed out of a passing vehicle. But the phone wasn’t locked, so he opened it up, he said.

“It was in airplane mode with a travel confirmation and baggage claim for Alaska 1282,” Bates said. “So, I had to go call the NTSB.”

  • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    59
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    the fact that “the phone wasn’t locked” surprised me more than its surviving the fall 🙃 then i realized the discrepancy. i should stop reading posts in privacy communities 🙂

    • n3m37h@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Some people are sane and use cases and glass screen protectors. Phones dont have a great enough terminal velocity to damage the internals. People get cases and throw band new iphones out of apartment buildings

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        I don’t feel the need to get a case that would allow my phone to survive an incident that I wouldn’t survive.

      • derpgon@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        10 months ago

        Also if it landed on grass or fell through thin tree branches, there is almost no chance of damage.

        • n3m37h@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          10 months ago

          I always use a glass screen protector, my last phone (Galaxy A71) only had a case, dropped it 100’s of times, one time there was a little pebble on the ground and that shattered my screen, for $10 you can get a 3 pack of glass screen protectors. Well worth it IMO

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      I have yet to understand the “discrepancy”. Which brand doesn’t default to locking the phone automatically after a short timeout? I’ve never had a smartphone that stays unlocked.