Just dropped mine today
I thought it was the end of my brand new MBA 11" I just had bought a week ago. I was at school, carrying it in my backpack as usual, but, of course, I forgot to zip it and the MBA fell down with a rough movement of mine. First it hit the floor with the lower right corner, then it spinned, fell into the screen to the floor and, due to the momentum, moved about two feet... towards the stairs!
I did run, as fast as possible, actually falling through the stairs too, but I was not able to save it. As it finally landed on its final position, my mass decided to land exactly in the same space. As we all know, two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same (well, believe me my MBA and me tried).
The result: Some minor dents on three of the four corners and a big bend on the lower right corner (where I landed)... it actually bended about 30º... Due to this last hit, the lid would stay opened.
When I finally put myself together I opened expecting the worst. As I though, nothing in the screen (it was slepping before the fall)... Nothing, nothing, nothing! Black screen! No keyboard light, nothing! Then I pressed the power button... one sec, two secs, three secs... that familiar boot up noise and I could see the Apple in the screen! To my surprise the screen was not harmed!
When the computer booted (I still haven't figured out why it turned off, accelerometers probably?) everything was fine, and it was working as is nothing had happened.
Later on, I learned about the "anatomy" of the MBA and I learned that the place where it has gotten the bad bent is the part of the machine that holds the battery. So, I went to a friend of mine, told him what had happened and asked him to use one of the big tools in the mechathronics labs (whose name I don't recall) to see if he could get the big bent area back into place. He applied heat and pressure, and voila! The MBA closes again properly...
You can now just see the stress marks on the metal, where it was bended back to place, and three little dents on the corners. But other than that, the machine works properly. I hate everytime I see the little details, but what the Hell, it survived.
