Tracy Pruss lost her iPhone 13 as she boarded an American Airlines flight from Raleigh-Durham to Cincinnati. The device slipped out of her pocket on the jetway.

But this was no ordinary phone; it contained some deeply personal information that could not be replaced.

Pruss alerted the airport and American Airlines and told them where the phone was, thanks to the Find My app. But no one could help her, and as the days went by and the battery waned, she was afraid she would lose the phone forever.

Could Pruss find this device before it was too late? Along the way, we’ll answer the following questions:

• How do you find a phone you lost at the airport?
• How do you get your phone back faster when you lose it at the airport?
• What are some common mistakes to avoid when you’re trying to recover a phone?

We’ve seen a lot of cases like this lately. Even when digital devices have tracking technology, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll always find them when they’re lost.

“My phone has been in the same place for three days”

Pruss lost her phone under circumstances anyone can understand. It’s that frenetic moment when you line up to board your plane and you’re fidgeting for your boarding pass and making sure you have all of your luggage.

I have lost digital devices, headsets and even kids in those crazy moments before boarding. Fortunately, I recovered all of them eventually, even the kids.

“The boarding was behind schedule, it was crowded and there was jostling, and I didn’t realize I had dropped my phone until after the jet door was closed,” she told me. (Related: How companies try to silence you when you have a problem.)

Pruss was crestfallen because the phone contained irreplaceable information, but she was confident that American Airlines could retrieve her phone quickly, thanks to its tracking technology. (Related: American Airlines canceled my business class ticket by accident. Can you fix it?)

“I filed reports with American Airlines and the Raleigh-Durham airport lost and found,” she recalls. 

The airport deferred to American Airlines. And the search started. (Related: Banned by American Airlines for being “intoxicated and engaging in sexual activity” — but was it her?)

“I can see my phone is still near the gate desk area using ‘Find My,'” she explained. “I’ve received no responses from American Airlines, and I can’t find a real person to talk to or to ask for help. I even tried calling the restaurant near the gate but I couldn’t get through.”

Pruss knows her time is limited.

“My phone has been in the same place for three days, but I don’t know how long it will stay there. I would like someone at Raleigh-Durham American Airlines to check the area behind the gate desk and then return my phone if it is still there,” she says.

Will American Airlines ever find her phone?

The search for her iPhone soon gave way to panic. American Airlines sent Pruss an email that was not reassuring.

Thirty days? By then, her phone would have run out of power completely, making it impossible to track.

Meanwhile, she could see the phone at the terminal. The battery was nearly empty.

“I also contacted American Airlines via chat,” says Pruss. “During the chat, a representative noted they could see my lost-and-found report, but they didn’t have any updates. The representative said that she made a note on my case but no further action could be taken at this time.”

Finally, Pruss drove to the airport in Cincinnati and spoke with an American Airlines agent in person.

“But she said they didn’t have a way to communicate with American Airlines at the Raleigh-Durham terminal,” she says.

All of this — the 30 days, the “making notations,” the “no way to communicate” with themselves — was starting to add up. Pruss was starting to feel as if she would never see her iPhone again, and that an essential memory would be lost forever.

How do you find a phone you lost at the airport?

This case raises a bigger question of how to find a phone you’ve lost at the airport. There are three places you can look.

Talk to the TSA

If you think you lost your phone at a security screening area, then you’ll need to contact the TSA’s lost and found to get your phone back. TSA has a well-oiled system and is usually quick about returning lost property to air travelers.

Reach out to the airport

For losses that happened elsewhere in the airport terminal, you’ll have to contact the airport’s lost and found. For example, here’s how to find Raleigh-Durham’s lost and found. There’s even an email address and phone number you can call.

Ask the airline 

If the loss happened in a terminal controlled by the airline, then you’ll want to contact the carrier immediately and file a report. Here’s how to reach American Airlines, for example.

For international flights: Always start with the airport. Airports outside the U.S. often have more control over terminals and security, and chances are there’s a more centralized way of handling lost and found items. 

For example, in Zürich, Switzerland, the airport handles most lost and found items, excluding the train station and lost luggage. Items lost in your luggage — well, that’s a whole ‘nother story

But wait. How about tracking technology? Shouldn’t it be easy to recover a lost phone or headset or anything else that’s being tracked with a Tile or AirTag? Not really. In our experience, airlines, airports and law enforcement don’t really care what your “Find My” app says. If they find your phone, they find your phone.

It’s an unfortunate attitude.

Pruss had done everything she could. But was there a way to accelerate the process?

How do you get your phone back faster when you lose it at the airport?

This case is a reminder that dealing with the lost and found department can test your patience and that no system is perfect.

Take the Swiss trains, which have a worldwide reputation for efficiency and punctuality. Two years ago, my son left his jacket on an SBB train from Basel to Chur. He promptly filed a lost and found report — and I confidently assured him that he would get the jacket back. 

We never heard from them again. 

Still, there are ways to speed up the process.

• File a police report. If you believe your phone has been stolen, then you’ll want to file a police report. When law enforcement gets involved, it can accelerate the recovery process. But as I’ve noted before, don’t take the law into your own hands — which is to say, don’t track your phone to a questionable address and confront a probable thief. That might be hazardous to your health.

• Go there in person. Many airports will allow you to go to lost and found in person and try to find the lost item. (They will require that you verify the item belongs to you.) This may be a shortcut, but my advice is to always ask before making the trip to the airport.

• Get help from social media. Look, I’m no fan of social media, but if you can send out a tweet or an X, or whatever they’re calling it these days, and you can retrieve your lost phone, I’m all for it. Social media can connect you to an army of other travelers who may be willing to help you. It’s worth a try.

Bottom line: There may be a way to get your phone back faster when you lose it at the airport. But it probably won’t be easy.

How about Pruss? Could she get her phone before it ran out of power? And what was on the phone that made her drive all the way to the airport to try and recover it?

“No phone turned up”

I reached out to American Airlines to see if they could help. This seemed like a clear-cut case to me: The phone was at an American Airlines gate. All the airline needed to do was find it before the charge ran out.

But it wasn’t that simple.

“Hey there, Chris,” my contact said. “I had our RDU team search every place she outlined and no phone turned up.”

My contact promised to reach out to Pruss personally to see if she was reading the iPhone map correctly.

And a day later, after contacting Pruss, I had the update I was hoping for.

“Good news! We found the phone and we’re getting it back to her,” she says. “Sounds like she had a pretty important voicemail from her father who passed, so I’m really glad we were able to find it.”

So that was it. A voicemail from her deceased father — a recording that could never be replaced.

I thought about that. My uncle also has a recording of my grandmother’s voice mail which she left on his phone shortly before she died. After writing this story, I’m going to call him to remind him to make a backup copy of the voicemail. 

Phones get lost. And Pruss might have never seen her iPhone again if we hadn’t gotten involved in her case.

I’m so glad American found her lost iPhone. Some memories are priceless and digital memories can be particularly fleeting. If it’s important to you, consider making a backup.