iPhone 4 falls 1,000 feet from airplane, survives without a scratch

By on Mar 23, 2011 at 1:41 PM
mobile March 23, 2011

When Apple first unveiled its iPhone 4 smartphone last summer, most media and bloggers were in agreement that the new glass construction was stunning. They also agreed, however, that the iPhone 4 would likely be more prone to significant damage than other smartphones due to the fragile nature of glass compared to plastic and metal. While we’ve heard our fair share of shattered iPhone stories, U.S. Air Force Combat Controller Ron Walker’s tale should help dispel the notion that the iPhone 4 is inherently fragile. While leaning out of an airplane looking for landmarks, Walker’s Velcro pocket flap popped open and his iPhone 4 plummeted to the earth below. At the time, the plane was traveling at 150 m.p.h at an altitude of roughly 1,000 feet. Once on the ground, Walker told a few friends what had happened, one of whom installed Apple’s “Find My iPhone” app on his own handset in an attempt to locate Walker’s lost phone. Unexpectedly, the app found Walker’s iPhone immediately and when the men drove to its location, they found the smartphone in perfect working condition without a scratch on it. Walker kept his iPhone in a standard Griffin case and it had no other casing or special protection at the time of its fall.

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  • Brad

    This isn’t really so unbelievable. A small device like the iPhone would have a fairly low terminal velocity. Terminal velocity is the point at which the resistance of the air equals the downforce of gravity. With its limited mass, it can only fall so fast. Terminal velocity is exactly why it’s impossible for a penny that’s dropped off of a skyscraper to kill somebody it hits on the ground. It can’t fall fast enough to achieve the speed necessary to penetrate a human skull. It will sting, but that’s about it (and yeah, I do watch Mythbusters). In any case, when the phone eventually reached the ground, if it managed to land on any type of material that wasn’t totally solid, then that combined with the limited terminal velocity speed means it could definitely survive.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gtechdesigners G-Tech Designers

    How much is Steve Jobs paying BGR to publish this nonsense story? Did you guys get free iPhones? Test the same case scenario at least a 100 times and try it on different surfaces… I bet you won’t find all the pieces to put the iPhone 4 together.

    And yeah… I dare you to take the challenge… I hope the guys from Mythbusters are reading this!! Ain’t no terminal velocity that could really save the iPhone which weights 4.8 Ounces (way more than a penny).

  • Betelgeuse Orion

    what kind of fucking retard drops a $700 cell phone out of a plane?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M7H6CJOK2XEPMNUAYTQLZHF2U4 Coffee Gamer

      Yeah! How the hell DO you just ‘drop’ an iPhone 1000 feet??

  • Emerald9954

    Landed on elephant dung

  • http://twitter.com/FattusMannus Andrew Hall

    This is amazing!
    So amazing in fact that it has to be complete and utter BS!

    I love my iPhone, dont get me wrong but no – just no!

  • jawnah

    I think this really just begs that a test against some of the Android devices be done. I’m sure someone out there could come up with a trip on an airplane, a Droid X, Incredible, and another iPhone (just to verify) so that this could be repeated. :)

  • Karen

    Even the corner of the phone that slammed into the ground… didn’t even get a scratch???

    Wow.

    So there will be absolutely no problem if I throw my iPhone about 50 feet into the air… and let it hit the ground?
    (Since even 1000 foot drops are now none to be no problem.)

    I’ll try it !

  • http://twitter.com/kstagg Kevin Stagg

    I call bullshit.

  • slownewsday

    What a Joke. My flat screen can stop a bullet without getting a scratch also

  • Griffin Cases

    This story was posted because they have a new sponsor…”Griffin” cases.

  • brad

    thats bs, i dropped my iphone 4 without a case from my waist onto the sidewalk and the back completely shattered

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M7H6CJOK2XEPMNUAYTQLZHF2U4 Coffee Gamer

      Mabye your phone was an unlucky one and theirs was the luckest phone EVER. Sorry ’bout your phone.

  • Dsterner81

    that Griffin case must be a GREAT case!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M7H6CJOK2XEPMNUAYTQLZHF2U4 Coffee Gamer

    I don’t care if it survived, how could someone be stupid enough to drop £450 worth of phone??? Also, It would have been intresting to see what the insurance people would have said about it being dropped out a plane if it had broken. When I get an iPhone THAT is the case I am getting!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M7H6CJOK2XEPMNUAYTQLZHF2U4 Coffee Gamer

    My phone can survive what many people have complained about their iPhone NOT surviving, concrete, sure I need to reset my clock cos the battery will fly out but it doesn’t shatter/blow up/smash/die etc.! Mine is a Nokia 2220, cost £25

  • http://www.squidoo.com/finalfantasy-xiv-guide Final fantasy XIV Guide

    Terminal velocity for an item that size and weight, combined with landing surface with some give, and the survival is not that remarkable.

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