{"id":6291,"date":"2013-09-17T10:47:47","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T17:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=3584"},"modified":"2025-12-12T15:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:00:52","slug":"asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/","title":{"rendered":"Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Benjamin
Benjamin Levy with his data back on a Backblaze USB Flash Drive restore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> On March 3, 2022, Backblaze ended the USB flash drive restore option. While we parted ways with USB flash drives, we continue to offer many options for restoring your files\u2014explore ways to recover your data here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

When Asiana Airlines Flight 214<\/a> crashed at San Francisco Airport on July 6th<\/sup>, we all watched in horror at the wreckage on the TV screens and could barely imagine anyone could have walked away. Amazingly, as details began to emerge, it sounded as though there may be many who made it.<\/p>\n

One of the first survivors I saw on TV, Benjamin Levy, would later be lauded for helping dozens of people escape<\/a> from the burning plane. While some raced out of the plane and others grabbed their luggage, Benjamin calmly helped as many people as he could, saying it was just \u201cgut instinct\u201d to help.<\/p>\n

A month later, I received an email from Nicolai Wadstrom, founder and CEO of startup accelerator BootstrapLabs<\/a>, who I had met a few years back at a tech event. He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo wanted to connect you with Ben Levy, a good friend and also a partner at BootstrapLabs, that was on the Asiana 214 flight that crashed on SFO, he luckily got away in once piece, but his Macbook Air was not as lucky. Fortunately he was using Backblaze per my recommendation\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ben happened to be a few blocks away at that moment and we met up. He talked about feeling incredibly lucky to be alive; said it felt like a second chance. He told me that while some asked him if it made him reexamine his priorities, he felt it just made him all the more grateful for the life he has\u2014where he gets to enjoy time with his family and love the work that he does.<\/p>\n

The next day, Ben signed into his Backblaze account and ordered a restore. His computer was ominously backed up right up to July 5th<\/sup>, 2013 at 9:45 p.m. PDT.<\/p>\n

Since he wanted approximately 50GB of data back quickly, he chose to order a USB Flash Drive to have sent to him via FedEx with his data on it. The next day, he had all his data back.<\/p>\n

After getting his data back, Ben sent me this email:<\/p>\n

“Among the millions of things you have to handle after such a horrific event, having all my computer data backed up with Backblaze was very comforting and the recovery process was effortless. I was concerned for a minute that my computer had not been backed-up for a while as I was hopping planes and jumping between countries for a few weeks, not staying connected for long stretches at a time, but it was, down to the last bit.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously the loss of data on someone\u2019s computer pales in comparison to the other tragedies of that July 6th<\/sup> crash. But I am glad we were able to play one very small part in helping at least one person return to a normal life, and we\u2019re sending our best wishes to everyone else aboard and affected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: On March 3, 2022, Backblaze ended the USB flash drive restore option. While we parted ways with USB flash drives, we continue to offer many options for restoring your files\u2014explore ways to recover your data here. When Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco Airport on July 6th, we all watched in… Continue reading Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survives<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[131,9,49],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-6291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backblaze-bits","category-customer-stories","category-restories","tag-consumerbackup","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Customer Story: How an Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survived<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Retrive your stored data with Backblaze. A success story from one of the first survivors who lost his macbook computer on a plane crash.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Customer Story: How an Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survived\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Retrive your stored data with Backblaze. A success story from one of the first survivors who lost his macbook computer on a plane crash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-17T17:47:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T23:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"747\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gleb Budman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gleb Budman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Customer Story: How an Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survived","description":"Retrive your stored data with Backblaze. A success story from one of the first survivors who lost his macbook computer on a plane crash.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Customer Story: How an Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survived","og_description":"Retrive your stored data with Backblaze. A success story from one of the first survivors who lost his macbook computer on a plane crash.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/","og_site_name":"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","article_published_time":"2013-09-17T17:47:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-12T23:00:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":560,"height":747,"url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gleb Budman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@backblaze","twitter_site":"@backblaze","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gleb Budman","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/"},"author":{"name":"Gleb Budman","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9267dd4f4f7d705914ea0047cc0ff8bf"},"headline":"Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survives","datePublished":"2013-09-17T17:47:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-12T23:00:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/"},"wordCount":539,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg","keywords":["ConsumerBackup"],"articleSection":["Backblaze Bits","Customer Stories","Restories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/","url":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/","name":"A Customer Story: How an Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survived","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg","datePublished":"2013-09-17T17:47:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-12T23:00:52+00:00","description":"Retrive your stored data with Backblaze. A success story from one of the first survivors who lost his macbook computer on a plane crash.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg","width":560,"height":747,"caption":"Benjamin Levy with his data back on a Backblaze USB Flash Drive restore."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/asiana-air-crash-survivors-data-survives\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Asiana Air Crash Survivor\u2019s Data Survives"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","name":"Backblaze Cloud Solutions Blog","description":"Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Backblaze","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Backblaze"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/x.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Backblaze","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Backblaze"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9267dd4f4f7d705914ea0047cc0ff8bf","name":"Gleb Budman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/bb-aboutus-Portrait_Gleb_Circle-Beige-e1636498747413-150x150.png","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/bb-aboutus-Portrait_Gleb_Circle-Beige-e1636498747413-150x150.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/bb-aboutus-Portrait_Gleb_Circle-Beige-e1636498747413-150x150.png","caption":"Gleb Budman"},"description":"Gleb Budman is a co-founder and has served as our chief executive officer since 2007, guiding the business from its inception in a Palo Alto apartment to a company serving customers in more than 175 countries with over an exabyte of data under management. Gleb has served as a member of our board of directors since 2009 and as chairperson since January 2021. Prior to Backblaze, Gleb was the senior director of product management at SonicWall and the vice president of products at MailFrontier, which was acquired by SonicWall. Before that, he served in a senior position at Kendara, which was acquired by Excite@Home, and previously founded and successfully exited two other startup companies.","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/author\/gleb\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_9055.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}