Spigen case might have helped this iPhone survive a 4,900m fall from Alaska Airlines flight

A door plug on a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines blew out mid-air earlier this month and while there were no casualties, several items that belonged to the passengers did fly out of the aircraft as well. Among them is an iPhone which somehow miraculously survived the 16,000-foot (~4,877 meter) drop.

From the photos posted by Sean Bates who found the iPhone in Portland, the device which is owned by Cuong Tran has a case and screen protector. People across the world began to wonder who are the makers of these accessories.

Enter the Spigen Cryo Armor

On 13 January, the renowned case maker Spigen published a tweet which claimed that a friend of Cuong Tran had informed the company that the iPhone was protected by one of its cases. Specifically, the Spigen Cryo Armor.

Primarily made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), Spigen has also utilised polycarbonate as the building material for Cryo Armor. As per most Spigen cases out there, the Cryo Armor utilises the company’s Air Cushion design to help protect the iPhone.

In addition to that, the case also comes with several features to help cool down the iPhone, especially for gaming. One is them is called ArticFlow Tech which involved the implementation of graphite and silicon sheets to improve heat dissipation.

The feature works alongside the AirCube pattern on the backside of the case which helped improve airflow according to Spigen. Speaking about gaming, the company has also added side grips on the case that have been optimised for horizontal gaming.

The case currently costs less than RM200 in Malaysia

If you are curious about the price of the Cryo Armor, the case is currently available on the company’s website for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 series with a price tag of USD64.99 (~RM302). It is also available for the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S23 devices at a slightly lower price of USD59.99 (~RM279).

Interestingly enough, the Cyro Armor case is much cheaper here in Malaysia. At the moment, you can get the iPhone 15 Pro Max version for RM159.90 at Spigen’s store on Shopee while the variant for Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is priced at RM169.90 at the same store.

Since we are on the subject of the Alaska Airlines incident which is currently still under investigation, it turned out that the door plug was made in Malaysia. The Malaysian connection aside, what is even more bizarre is the fact that the inscriptions on the door plug were handwritten which is something that you would not expect from an aircraft component.