Bodies of Those Lost in Airplane Crash Found Via iPhone App

The bodies of all 21 people on a Chilean CASA 212 military plane that crashed Friday have been recovered using Apple's Find My iPhone feature.

Gizmodo has more:

Remains from the CASA 212 from Chile's Air Force were found floating in the sea near Tierra Banca and Playa Larga, in a zone between the islands of Robinson Crusoe and Santa Clara, and Juan Fernández airport.

The crash point was located thanks to one of the victims' relatives. The victim had an active iPhone at the time of the crash. Presumably out of desperation, the relative tried the Find My iPhone feature that Apple offers for iOS devices.

[...]

It's surprising that the iPhone survived the impact and continued to work, even more so because the crash was really extreme, according to the military sources.

Gizmodo, which translated the Chilean news report, reported that no pieces of the plane larger than 20 inches have been recovered. Four bodies have been recovered; the others are being retrieved from the bottom of the sea using robots.

"After a search involving the commander in chief of the FACh [Chilean air force] the conclusion has been reached that the impact was so powerful it would have led to the instant death of those on board the plane," said Defense Minister Andres Allamand, according to an Associated Press report.

The plane crashed last Friday afternoon after two failed attempts to land in difficult weather on the islands.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[H/T Gizmodo]