The missing part of the Alaska Airlines aircraft that suffered a serious blowout on the evening of Jan. 5 has been found, according to US federal air safety investigators. The door plug was found in the backyard of a Portland-based school teacher. Bloomberg's Benedikt Kammel reports. A new-generation Apple Inc. iPhone landed intact, unlocked and with hours of battery life remaining on a Portland, Oregon roadside, according to a post on X by a user calling himself Seanathan Bates, who said he discovered the device. The screen showed an email from Alaska Airlines about a baggage claim for the flight, based on Bates’ photos.
The phone was in airplane mode, Bates said in a TikTok video. “It was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush and it didn’t have a screenlock on it,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed at a briefing on Sunday that one phone was found on the side of a road and another in a yard. The people have handed in both of the devices, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters.
“We’ll look through those and then return them” to passengers, Homendy said. “It also helps in telling us, ‘Are we looking in the right area?”’
Bates couldn’t be reached for comment. An NTSB spokesperson later confirmed Bates’s account and said the phone had been turned over to Alaska Airlines.
The fuselage panel that blew off the plane was eventually discovered in the backyard of a Portland-based schoolteacher.
Apple says on its website that iPhone or its battery can be damaged if dropped. In this case, the only part that appeared broken in Bates’ post was the charger cord; even the screen was intact. The end of the cord was still plugged into the phone, but the rest of the cable was detached.
Flight 1282 was forced to turn back minutes after takeoff when the panel broke loose from the fuselage. None of the 171 passengers aboard the Max 9 jet was seriously injured. It landed safely back in Portland about 20 minutes after takeoff, having reached more than 4,900m in altitude before turning around.
The US Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded more than 170 Max 9 aircraft to conduct safety checks before they are returned to service.
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