Bad Week for Airlines, Good Week for Apple?

Image: Michael Novak
Apple unexpectedly gained some good publicity in the aftermath of Sunday's Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, after an ejected iPhone landed in Beaverton without so much as a scratch on its screen.
Sean Bates, an app developer, found the phone in roadside brush near Sunset Transit Center and posted photos of the perfectly intact phone, still half-charged, in airplane mode, and open to an Alaska Airlines baggage receipt. He also reported his find to the National Transportation Safety Board, naturally.
He was immediately peppered with commenters asking questions. Namely: What brand was that case? (Bates didn’t think to check, inadvertently depriving a phone case manufacturer of millions in free marketing.) Commenters were also aghast that the phone appeared to have zero security measures, and offered sage advice: “Lock your phones!” Bates agreed to an interview with KPTV, but soon tired of his 15 minutes, tweeting “I’m not going to make a whole media tour over finding a lost cell phone.”
He’s not the only local garnering attention for finding fallen treasure. A Portland-area school teacher, known by most reports simply as “Bob," found the much-sought-after door plug in his Southwest Portland backyard Monday. Oregon news media identified the mystery man as Catlin Gabel science teacher Bob Sauer. “I especially want to say thank you to Bob,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said during a press conference Monday. “I’m sure he was a hit at school today.”
Portland good samaritans have also recovered another cell phone, a headrest, and a plastic window frame. And the treasure hunting is not yet over: Other items still at large include a laminated checklist belonging to the flight crew, a teenager’s T-shirt, and a few additional parts from the door plug, including the bolts meant to hold the plug in its locked position—if they were there to begin with, says Homendy.
The headaches continue for airlines, as they tackle a dual safety and public relations fiasco. Both United and Alaska reported loose bolts on other Boeing 737 Max 9 planes, which the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded pending inspections.
Treasure hunters should report their finds to the NTSB ([email protected]) or local law enforcement. But now that the door plug is at a lab in Washington, DC, don’t expect your 15 minutes. Unless, of course, you find a bolt.