In addition to "why someone would throw a phone that far"... that height of 43 m is impressive, since it (neglecting any force except gravity) requires an object to be thrown vertically at around 29 m/s to stay in the air for almost 9 seconds. 29 m/s is over 104 km/h... but throwing things upwards is not that easy.

That top score should be the result of manipulating the sensors or the data sent to the server. [edit: ... or measuring some other action than throwing the phone]

You could fairly easily throw and catch it while in the vomit comet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_gravity_aircraft). That should get you in the 25s range. Next up would be using it while in the IIS.

If the software is not too picky detecting weightlessness, just holding your phone while inside a fast elevator going down could also work.

It would be in air for 6 seconds. 2 * (29/9.8) ~= 6s

It's probably easier to hack the protocol it speaks with the server. That's what ruined the world-wide stats in the iOS game center too.

Drop it from a great height? It's probably just measuring the flight time, by measuring the time for which the accelerometer reads zero. Infinite points if you can get your phone into orbit!

I'm not so much concerned with the why, but more... how? 43m straight up is a pretty tall throw, I'm picturing water balloon slingshots or something...

"I wonder if there is a way to "hack" the accelerometer..."

A fun, if elementary, physics puzzle.

Perhaps they were on a rollercoaster or one of those rides that you take vertically straight up?