A Canadian mixed-media artist dropped her new iPhone 17 Pro from a small plane at 3,600 feet over Regina, Saskatchewan, only to recover it face-up, pristine, and entirely unscathed in a canola field after using Find My to track the device down.
When David Cline and his wife, mixed-media artist Heather Cline, take to the skies above Saskatchewan, Canada, they are usually hunting for aerial perspectives to inspire Heather’s artwork depicting the Canadian landscape. On a recent flying outing above Regina, Heather brought along her new iPhone 17 Pro to help gather inspiration for a project. David had expressed doubts about her choice because a traditional camera-style grip she had ordered for the device had not arrived yet. To compensate, Heather opted to wear a lanyard-style case around her neck while flying on a clear day.
An Accidental Plunge Through the Airstream
While attempting to capture the ideal photograph from the aircraft, Heather inadvertently passed her phone through an airstream. The rushing air caught the device, sucking it straight out of its lanyard case and pitching it out of the aircraft from an altitude exceeding 3,600 feet. Thinking quickly, David urged Heather to use the Find My application to locate the falling device. The pair managed to get a rough fix on the phone’s coordinates and resolved to search for it once they touched ground.
Discovery in a Canola Field
Upon returning to the ground, the couple tracked the phone to a local canola field, where Heather expected to find a shattered, dirt-caked electronic relic. Instead, the reality in the crop defied every expectation.
Heather Cline, mixed-media artist, recalled that as she went up there, she thought the device would be buried in the dirt, completely smashed, and in a crazy state, but when she literally looked down, the phone was just sitting there face-up against a few strands of canola and looked entirely pristine.
Miraculously, the iPhone 17 Pro had survived the massive fall without visible damage, sitting undisturbed against a few stalks of canola.
The Aerodynamics of a High-Altitude Fall
While losing a phone from thousands of feet in the air sounds like certain destruction, aerodynamics explain why flat objects like smartphones frequently withstand extreme drops. During long falls, flat devices stabilize and fall flat
very quickly, which dramatically slows down their descent speed and positions them ideally for impact. By contrast, everyday drops from short heights—such as a four-foot fall onto concrete or carpet—frequently result in devastating corner or edge impacts because the phone lacks sufficient time in the air to rotate into a flat orientation, concentrating all the force onto a tiny surface area instantly.
Furthermore, landing surfaces dictate how energy transfers during an impact. Citing discussions with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, case manufacturers, and Apple, a falling phone hits its maximum velocity after about a 335-foot drop, which is notably lower than the terminal velocity of a spherical object. A six-foot fall impacts surfaces at roughly half the speed of that 335-foot milestone. When devices land on soft terrain like grass, dirt, or crop fields rather than hard concrete or asphalt, the ground cushions the blow by extending stopping time and drastically lowering peak impact force.
Looking Ahead to Safer Flights
Reflecting on the miraculous recovery in a video posted to CBC’s Instagram account, Heather laughed off the incident and confirmed she plans to secure her technology properly before heading back into the air. Heather joked that perhaps they would secure it by cable-tying it to her hand, to which David chimed in, Not a bad idea.
