The father of a teen who was lost at sea said Apple is attempting to reactivate his son’s iPhone in the hopes of learning more about his fate, ABC News reports. The phone was found aboard the boat that Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, both 14, were on when they went missing. Blu Stephanos said, “We’ve been working with the phone’s manufacturer who seems willing to help us try to get the phone operational again. That would be the first order of business, since Austin’s phone has been submerged in salt water for over eight months.”
IT professionals had previously tried to access the phone’s iCloud backup, but found it had never been enabled. All of the experts have warned Stephanos the chances of recovering information from the phone are slim, but he isn’t giving up hope. Jonathan Zdziarski, an independent forensics expert, said while salt water “is definitely corrosive…there are a number of companies out there that specialize in data recovery, and part of that involves salvaging damaged hardware.”