iPhone is entombed in a skating rink until January
Skaters at a temporary U.K. ice rink have been skating over an iPhone that was accidentally left on the floor of the rink while it was being constructed in Milton Keynes, England. 13,000 gallons of water was poured into the structure and when the water was frozen to create the ice, the iPhone was entombed under the ice. People can skate over the iPhone which has a bright pink case allowing skaters to spot the frozen phone easily.
The rink is created around this time of the year for the Willen On Ice experience which offers skating, rides, food, and more. The owner of the iPhone is the daughter of one of the workmen who built the rink. This member of the crew had lost his own phone and borrowed the iPhone from his daughter. He left the device at the rink overnight just when the 13,000 gallons of water was being poured into the structure of the rink. The following day, when he got to the rink, the phone was frozen under the ice.
"Unfortunately, there is no way we will be able to get the phone out of the ice now. If we were to dig it out, it would affect the structure of the ice so it’ll remain entombed for the next two months."-Robin Cook, Director, Ice Leisure"
The workman doesn't know whether his daughter's iPhone had been placed in the rink as a prank by a fellow worker, but he did admit that his daughter was mad at him at first because of the brand-new pink case that was on the phone. He had to promise her a temporary replacement phone to get her to cool down.
An iPhone is frozen under the ice of a U.K. skating rink and will remain there until the rink is taken down in January. | Image credit-BBC
The pink-cased iPhone has to remain frozen under the ice for another two months according to Robin Cook, a director at Ice Leisure, the company that runs the operation. Cook said that digging out the phone would not be a solution because it would affect the structure of the ice. The rink starts getting deconstructed at some point after January 5th. While the exact iPhone model stuck in the ice isn't known, we can go by the three cameras on the back panel to deduce that it is an iPhone Pro or iPhone Pro Max model.
When the trapped iPhone is finally freed from its icy tomb in two to three months, it almost sounds like the workman whose daughter owns the device expects that it will be fine. After all, he calls the replacement phone he got for his daughter "temporary." While the iPhone 16 Pro is water resistance to a depth of 19 feet for as long as 30 minutes, it is doubtful that Apple had the phone tested to check its endurance when frozen in ice for months.
Still, there is hope. Back in 2021, Owain Davies dropped his iPhone X into the Wye River in Gloucestershire, England. 10 months later, the iPhone X was found full of water by someone in a canoe. He took the phone home and dried it out using an airline and a compressor and placed it in a cupboard overnight. The next morning he plugged in the charger and the device worked.
The photo on the lock screen showing the owner of the device was posted on Facebook by the guy who discovered the iPhone X and sure enough, someone recognized him. An unexpected iPhone reunion took place. We've also written amazing stories about iPhone units that fell from great heights and survived. In 2023, a skydiver's iPhone fell out of his pocket during a jump. The device spiraled 14,000 feet back to earth and was still working when found.
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