--- title: iPhone: Man's Phone Miraculously Still Works After Falling From Plane description: He found it under a mesquite tree canonical: https://time.com/3981156/iphone-falls-plane/ author: Eliza Gray article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-01T14:54:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:10.865Z og:title: Man's iPhone Miraculously Still Works After Falling From a Plane og:description: He found it under a mesquite tree in rural Texas og:url: https://time.com/3981156/iphone-falls-plane/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf3d694fa7b3d251/6988516a5f570fb43ab1ba35/gettyimages-101745067.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2043 og:image:height: 1149 og:image:alt: Apple Announces New iPhone At Developers Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man's iPhone Miraculously Still Works After Falling From a Plane twitter:description: He found it under a mesquite tree in rural Texas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf3d694fa7b3d251/6988516a5f570fb43ab1ba35/gettyimages-101745067.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Man's iPhone Miraculously Still Works After Falling From a Plane Over Texas > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=1e38f914-94d0-430b-9a44-e93166f6bf07&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Aug 1, 2015 2:54 PM UTC  The new iPhone 4 is displayed at the 2010 Apple World Wide Developers conference June 7, 2010 in San Francisco, California. The new iPhone 4 is displayed at the 2010 Apple World Wide Developers conference June 7, 2010 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Aug 1, 2015 2:54 PM UTC A Texas man [used an app to find his iPhone](http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/phone-found-in-working-condition-after-9300-foot-fall) in a rural pasture after it fell 9,300 ft. (2,834 m) from a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane on a flight from Houston. The phone fell out of the aircraft during a Monday flight, when a pressure change caused the door to open slightly. The owner of the phone, Ben Wilson, a Texas businessman, used the Find My iPhone app to locate the phone. They found it with a map and a satellite image. “It was by the side of the road south of Jacksboro, under a mesquite tree,” Wilson told the [_Times Record News_](http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/phone-found-in-working-condition-after-9300-foot-fall) in Wichita Falls, Texas. “It was in one piece, scratched a bit on the corners but it still worked,” he said. ### PHOTOS: Beautiful Long Exposures of Airplanes at Night  College Point Blvd., College Point, Queens, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt  36th Ave., Flushing, Queens, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt  Hermon MacNeil Park, College Point, Queens, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt  Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt  East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt for TIME  Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt for TIME  Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt for TIME  Queens Botanical Garden, Flushing, Queens, N.Y., June 2014. Kevin Kunstadt  Flushing, N.Y., July 2014. Kevin Kunstadt  Ocean Blvd., Atlantic Beach, N.Y., July 2014. Kevin Kunstadt for TIME  Spray View Ave., Far Rockaway, N.Y., July 2014. 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