When part of the fuselage was torn off an Alaska Airlines aircraft mid-flight, a man from Washington state was shocked to find an iPhone that appeared to have fallen from the plane.

Even more surprising, however, was that the phone still worked after a vertical drop of roughly 5km.

On January 8, Sean Bates shared a video on TikTok showing people the phone and explaining how had found it during a walk.

It was later confirmed the phone belonged to a passenger on Alaska Airlines flight 1282.

Sean Bates shared how he discovered the phone was from an Alaska Airlines passenger and how the phone fared the fall. Photo / Sean Bates

Bates also posted his story on X (formerly Twitter), which prompted “thousands” of people to ask the exact same question: what was the brand of protective case on the phone?

“All I want to know is: What brand the case and screen protector was on that thing?!” one X user wrote.

“You were the first of many thousands to ask me that question,” Bates replied, saying he didn’t think to check the brand before turning it in.

It appeared the popular question would go unanswered.

Then Spigen, a phone case company, replied to Bates’ message.

“MYSTERY SOLVED: IT WAS US” it read, alongside a photo that showed Faccebook messages from a friend of the phone’s owner, stating it was a Spigen case.

The person said the owner did not have social media accounts, so only heard stories about his phone being found after it had been mailed back to him.

“He was using the Spigen case on his phone, which prevented the damages from the fall,” the person wrote.

The Spigen account called the scenario “the drop test of the decade”, referring to tests manufacturers run to test the efficacy of a case.

According to Spigen, the Cyro Armor case has military-grade certified drop protection through Air Cushion Technology.

Made from graphite, TPU and PC, an iPhone version of the case retails for US$65 ($106) on the Spigen website.