Why was your camera in checked baggage?

I spent 4 years in Central Africa and two days before I left to come back to the US my entire kit was stolen in Lusaka. Clothes, cameras, pictures, everything but my rifles and passport which were locked up.

I keep all binos, cameras, etc in my carry on.

I took three cameras to RSA/Zimbabwe this June. I had great video of stuff like a running shot on a blue wildebeest, etc. I guess I'm fortunate that only the video camera was stolen at Vic Falls and I still have the stills from the other two cameras, but I'll never travel again with cameras anywhere but in hand held luggage (where one of the three was).

I'd say you are probably screwed. I always make sure my camera, binos etc... are in my carry on for just this reason. Photos are something you simply can not replace.

When I returned from Cameroon in March I went through customs in Atlanta as well. I had to show firearms to the custom agent and then turn them back over to Delta. When my plane arrived in Norfolk Va my rifle case was completely destroyed. One rifle was sticking out of the case and the entire hinge assembly was crushed and mangled. I got very little assisitance from the Delta Rep at Norfolk airport. If I remember correctly they offered $40 in compensation. I ended up having to go up their chain of personnel until I got a V.P. of customer relations on the phone. They ended up coughing up $250 to replace the case and paid a gunsmith to look over both rifles for damage.

You should be able to get some sort of assistance, but you will have to fight like hell to make them pay in full.

Wish you luck. I know that I've probably flown Delta for the last time. I'll pay extra to fly another airline and avoid the hassle.

Mac

I just returned from a successful Mozambique elephant hunt through Atlanta on 9/17.

My digital camera and of course the SD chip with all the pictures of the hunt was in my luggage at the customs station. I gave my baggage to Delta at the transfer desk but when I arrived in Houston, the camera was not in the baggage. All the pictures are gone. This is the second year in a row that a camera has been taken from my bags in Atlanta. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more.

I have contacted Delta by phone(hopeless) and by e-mail(no reply).

Has anyone got any suggestions on whom to contact to get some positive action on this? Will the FAA help? Maybe the FBI? Is there anyone out there that gives a shit?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

i was in Zimbabwe this past June, my bags were "miss marked in Alanta, ended up sitting in unclaimed baggage in Jo'burg for 6 days. Yes, I had nothing for 6 days! Only my gun case was marked correct, that made it up the second day, didn't do me any good though, ammo & bolts in my bag! When they finally figured everything out and sent them up to Vic Falls I was missing a custom made, (only two like these) Ramon knife, gave one to my PH the previous year as a gift. Also Nikon binos, 416 ammo and some clothes and candy. The SAA rep stood right there while I looked through my bags and told him what was missing, he started a claim form then. I contacted my travel agent when I got home and I've put in a cliam form, haven't hear anything for quite some time. I'm going to have to start calling someone...Any help out there would be thankful, number to call or who to talk to???? Thanks......................
As always Good Hunting!!!!!! Widowmaker416

Sorry to hear these stories. Thirty years ago we lost some photos when the film was xrayed to death out of Nairobi. Not being very professional about my photos, I now use a small Olympus digital that is very easy to keep in the carry-on bag. But one additional advantage of the digitals is that we can take out the memory card and store it where ever is safest, usually on our person. Much easier than trying to carry 5 rolls of film, and not effected by xray machines. Also, I don't use the super capacity cards that would allow me to do all the photos from the trip on one card- use 2 or 3 so that at least some of them should survive.

Sorry to hear of all these terrible experiences.
I now take the precaution of a repeat shooting of all crucial photographs with a 35mm disposable camera and then leaving it behind with the PH. Cameras which turn up missing or faulty can cause enormous grief. It only takes a few moments to secure an inexpensive backup photo.

I've never flown with guns before, but it seems like those going to Africa have the most problem with lost luggage. I'm curious to know if people going to places like China, Mongolia, etc. have had problems with the airline loosing their guns/baggage?

Sevens

Early this year my "inside source" at South African Airways said he has seen store rooms full of lost baggage, the airline makes no real attempt to find out where it should go and just disposes of it after a while. My opinion: after everything of value has been stolen.

huntingcat- Sorry about your loss. That is a real bummer. We would all like to hear about your elephant hunt so give us some details! Will keep my fingers crossed that your stuff is located and returned.

My suggestion is put your cameras in your locked gun case as I do in my Tuff case..I carry all exposed film in my carry on...I insure my guns and cameras etc. My home insurance has a flyer for such..

I suggest you don't do it three years in a row.

I'm as stunned as everyone else. What were you thinking checking a camera?

Second year in a row. Man, you are a slow learner. I wouldn't even have told that one on myself.

Hand-carry the things of value. If your shaving kit or your extra pair of underwear were more valuable than your camera, disregard my earlier comments, then you did the right thing.

Sorry to be so hard on you, but you seem to have earned it.

I've travelled Africa, South America, Europe, Middle East, Canada and Asia the past thirteen years. I've never lost a bag. I've had one or two arrive late.

I take a negative approach and assume it is going to be lost so I stand there and watch every step in the process until there is nothing more I can do and it disappears from sight along that conveyor. I won't take my eyes off my gun case for sure until it disappears from view.

Anything one-of-a-kind or of significant value is hand-carried. I haven't packed a hunting knife in seven or eight years. On a guided hunt I figure I'm paying for someone else to carry a knife and know how to use it.

Last year I had a whole roll of film from my first Eastern wild turkey hunt come out blank after traveling on a plane. Thus I do not believe the airlines when they say anything less than 1000 speed film is safe. When I travel now, I will carry a digital camera and will buy, if possible, numerous disposable camera's at the location. Valuables, except knives, guns, and ammo, belong in a carry-on. I believe it is better to go through the hassle of a hand search of a carry-on than risk loosing valuable optics, etc. You can pack plenty of cameras, binos, and riflescopes (with QD mounts) in one carry on, while using one change of clothing and toiletries as padding. Film, exposed or not, gets hand checked.

Sorry to hear of your loss, next hunt bring a laptop and dump the pic's in it nightly. then bring the laptop as a carry on. I have a Vaio small laptop just for that reason. we used it on a Lamborghini event recently and it was great. Funny thing is I lost my camera too after the event. GRRRR.

I carry a knapsack originally made by some European army, and in it goes my pills, my dopp, my bino's, my cameras-still and video, and a change of clothes. It will fit nicely in the overhead, with adjustments, even upstairs on a 747. (Oh, how I love you, 747. Let me count the ways: wider, longer, faster.) I don't go anywhere, stateside, Europe or Africa without packing this way. I have had a camera bag stolen from a rental car in France, but have never lost anything on the plane or lost a day of hunting! I had British Air loose all the rest of my luggage, and Delta loose my wooden pitchfork coming home from France (that's another story), but I had clean clothes, clean teeth, and a shave. Ku-dude