Apple Proves Unsuccessful Reviving iPhone Belonging to Lost-at-Sea Teenager

A few weeks back, we featured a story about Apple having reached out to the parents of two teenagers — Austin Stephanos and his comrade, Peter Cohen, who were unfortunately reported to have been lost at sea while out on a routine boating trip together late last July.

Apple compassionately agreed to help the parents recover one of the teen’s severely waterlogged iPhones — which was discovered, stowed away in the boy’s capsized boat, by a Norwegian ship off the coast of Bermuda. However, unfortunately, not even the Silicon Valley tech-giant could salvage the badly water damaged device.

Despite having given it their best efforts, a team of Apple Engineers were unfortunately unable to revitalize the handset — which is perhaps not all that unsurprising, seeing as how the iPhone, which belonged to 14-year-old Austin Stephanos, was subjected to seawater submersion for approximately 8 months straight.

When the iPhone was discovered back in March, 2016, Apple had reached out to the families — indicating that the company would do “whatever it can” in order to bring the badly-damaged iPhone back to life. Accordingly, the handset was sent into Apple’s forensics team in April — at which point, the iPhone 6 was taken apart, in it’s entirety; it’s internal components cleaned thoroughly; and given a chemical report. The Engineers on the case then tried to power the iPhone on, unfortunately, however, to no avail.

Even still, the parents of the still missing and believed to be deceased teens, were profusely thankful for Apple’s efforts, and released the following statement, accordingly:

“We learned yesterday that Apple went as far as they could to try to get Austin’s iPhone working, which, as Apple advised, was the first step in the process of retrieving information that might help us understand what happened to the boys. Apple also made it clear that getting the iPhone to power up was its only commitment to Blu Stephanos, which differs from what we heard from his attorney in court. For the generous efforts by Apple’s engineers, who we understand worked tirelessly to try to help us, we are so very grateful.”

By the way, just in case you haven’t been following the news: Late last July, Stephanos and Cohen were reported missing after they failed to return home from what was poised to be a routine boating trip out on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. Despite an exacerbating, 8-day, 50,000 nautical mile search effort, unfortunately, the effort to find the boys alive was unsuccessful — and thus, was called off, accordingly, by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Very unfortunate, indeed — though perhaps understandably so, this case may be. The iPhone was severely waterlogged — to the point where not even the company who built it, and knows it, inside out, was able to do anything.

But at the very least, Apple tried, right? That certainly speaks volumes about Apple’s character and integrity, as a company, and as a world leader in creating innovative products that benefit the greater good.

What do you think about Apple’s efforts? Let us know in the comments below.