Éric Béteille, a content designer at Meta living in San Diego, lost his AirTag on an Alaska Airlines flight in July, and since then, he has been tracking its travels to 37 different cities. He realized the AirTag was missing by accident when he checked the Find My app a few weeks after his flight and saw that it was still hundreds of miles away from him. Béteille wrote about this experience in a Facebook post, sharing the details of how his AirTag fell out of his luggage tag in the cargo space on the airplane and has been on a journey across the western US and Canada ever since.
Utilizing the Flightradar24 app, Béteille was able to track all the places his AirTag has flown, including Austin, Texas, and Vancouver, Canada. Despite having been to 34 of the 37 cities the AirTag traveled to, he has traveled outside of North America to Europe and Asia. He stated that he has never contacted the airline to retrieve the AirTag, as he finds following its journey to be more enjoyable. Commenters on his Facebook post praised him for tracking the device and asked questions about its battery life and the possibility of dropping an AirTag in unique locations for tracking purposes.
According to Apple’s website, the battery of an AirTag can last about a year, which explains how the device has been able to continue its journey for an extended period. Béteille’s decision not to contact Alaska Airlines to retrieve the AirTag has sparked interest and admiration among those following his tracking story. Some comments on his post suggested dropping AirTags in other unconventional locations to see how they would travel, further fueling the fascination with the device’s tracking capabilities. Béteille’s unique experience with the lost AirTag has garnered attention for the innovative ways in which such devices can be used beyond their intended purpose.
Despite not intentionally losing the AirTag, Béteille’s ability to track its travels has turned it into an unexpected adventure that has captured the interest of many on social media. His decision to let the device continue its journey rather than retrieving it demonstrates a sense of curiosity and whimsy that resonates with many users. The journey of the AirTag serves as a reminder of the unexpected ways in which technology can bring amusement and intrigue into our lives, even in seemingly mundane circumstances. Béteille’s story showcases the joy that can come from embracing the unexpected and finding fascination in the everyday experiences that surround us.
