Cell Phone Departs Mooney Over Open Desert: Guess What Happens Next

Dennis Pruitt and his wife Karen flying in their Mooney. Photo courtesy of Dennis Pruitt

When Dennis Pruitt and his wife, Karen, departed from Coolidge, Arizona, on their way to Henderson, Nevada, recently, they didn't make it very far before something happened that has happened to many of us. The door popped open, in their case, a thousand feet above the Arizona desert. Despite her initial alarm, Mrs. Pruitt, relaxed, thanks to assurances from her husband that everything would be fine and that they would land just as always and get that door securely closed. It was only after they landed, got the door closed, flew to Henderson and landed there that Karen took stock. Did she lose anything? Oh no! She did! Her cell phone! Well, there's a thousand bucks down the drain, right?

Wrong.

And here's how Dennis described the drama.

My wife and I left Coolidge P08 to Henderson KHND couple weeks ago in our Mooney M20E. After we took off the passenger door opened. My wife latched onto me like she was going to get sucked out of the airplane like an airline disaster movie. After I [reassured her] we turned back to the airport. She always wraps herself in a blanket while we fly anywhere, and her blanket had gotten sucked halfway out the door, but she was able to retrieve it. We landed, locked the door and 1Hr 49min later we are in Henderson. When we arrived she couldn't find her phone. My wife and I share our location and [I saw on my phone that last location of her] phone was 3 miles from the airport we took off from. We came back 3 days later to look around for it. The airport manager even loaned us an ATV to go out into the Arizona desert to hunt for the phone. Amazingly, we found it, undamaged and in perfect shape. The phone was dropped from 1000 feet AGL at 125mph!

So from all of us who've lost something out of or off of a plane (like a $500 Go Pro, not me, that's for sure), we thank the Pruitts and congratulate them on their tenacity and good fortune.