content: How did an iPhone survive a 9300 foot drop from an airplane?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity The phone hit the ground at about 120 MPH. It wouldn't have matter if it was dropped from1, 500 feet or 40,000 or 5 billion feet (if somehow possible).  Near the surface of the Earth, an object in free fall in a vacuum will accelerate at approximately 9.8 m/s2, independent of its mass. With air resistance acting on an object that has been dropped, the object will eventually reach a terminal velocity, which is around 56 m/s (200 km/h or 120 mph) for a human body. The terminal velocity depends on many factors including mass, drag coefficient, and relative surface area and will only be achieved if the fall is from sufficient altitude. A typical skydiver in a spread-eagle position will reach terminal velocity after about 12 seconds, during which time he will have fallen around 450 m (1,500 ft).[1]  Note: All these calculations are based on the human body, however, most all objects (without feathers or parachutes) fall at the same speed/acceleration. Because the variable is drag, and weight has NO effect on that. Similarly, a penny falls about as fast as a brick. Weight has no play, it's all about air drag (or in laymen terms, whichever looks more like a parachute). in short, I can believe a phone is still working after hitting topsoil/grass at 120 mph via free fall.  How do you drop your phone out of an airplane?   9300 feet sounds like the altitude of a private plane, not a passenger jet. He probably is a pilot, maybe an armature trying to take a selfie.  Texas is huge with poor cell reception in most of the state. Did the phone drop near a town ?  If he was flying a plane for hobby, he probably wasn't far from civilization.