Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

I hate baggage handlers...

Mark Thorpe

Mark Thorpe

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
1,291
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Bali, Indonesia.
Website
www.liquidmocean.com
Just got down here to South Africa after flying with BA from London. Didn't really check the underwater gear until getting to my final destination a couple days ago. My underwater housing for my Sony Z1 was packed well in a SCUBA gear bag and protected with bubble wrapping and wrapped again in soft clothes. That means the damn thing must have been dropped, kicked, driven over or all three at some stage of its transport. Weighing in at less than the required 22kg I found that one of the main control shafts for manual manipulation of the Iris and which traverses the bulkhead of the housing to be completely bent. Quite how that happened is anyone's guess but now means a wait whilst a replacement is Fedexed from California. Bummer.

What can one do about this? I have contacted BA via email, so far nothing.

Ho hum, thats life I guess, its just a pain in the ass as now I'm the one who is suffering and will also have to prove the damage was done during the time the gear was in transport with them........:angry2:

Such is life,
Mark.
 
bummer mark. I know the answer is hard cases etc etc. But I also know that there are loads of good reasons not to use heavy cases that look like they contain very expensive items, (fascinating to Customs officials and thieves..).
I use Burton wheelie travel bags. The carry-on bag is FANTASTIC, the larger bags less so. But they are pretty well made, fairly lightweight and solid plastic on the lower section where I put all my fragile gear. Then I put my clothes in the top section for padding..
Happy Diving :-) I was just in Cape Town: love it, hate it.. ;-)
 
CamDiver said:
Just got down here to South Africa after flying with BA from London. Didn't really check the underwater gear until getting to my final destination a couple days ago. My underwater housing for my Sony Z1 was packed well in a SCUBA gear bag and protected with bubble wrapping and wrapped again in soft clothes. That means the damn thing must have been dropped, kicked, driven over or all three at some stage of its transport. Weighing in at less than the required 22kg I found that one of the main control shafts for manual manipulation of the Iris and which traverses the bulkhead of the housing to be completely bent. Quite how that happened is anyone's guess but now means a wait whilst a replacement is Fedexed from California. Bummer.

What can one do about this? I have contacted BA via email, so far nothing.

Ho hum, thats life I guess, its just a pain in the ass as now I'm the one who is suffering and will also have to prove the damage was done during the time the gear was in transport with them........:angry2:

Such is life,
Mark.
Click to expand...

Sorry.I feel your disenchantment.
 
Ouch. That's why our housing is snuggly protected in a Pelican case even if it means lots of excess luggage bills. You usually have about 2 weeks to claim for damages, but it's limited to a certain amount per item. Try get hold of BA in Johannesburg (0860 435922). Fortunately John is on the ball and you should have your new control in less than a week.
 
Rubbermaid action packer

Rubbermaid action packer

CamDiver said:
Just got down here to South Africa after flying with BA from London. Didn't really check the underwater gear until getting to my final destination a couple days ago. My underwater housing for my Sony Z1 was packed well in a SCUBA gear bag and protected with bubble wrapping and wrapped again in soft clothes. That means the damn thing must have been dropped, kicked, driven over or all three at some stage of its transport. Weighing in at less than the required 22kg I found that one of the main control shafts for manual manipulation of the Iris and which traverses the bulkhead of the housing to be completely bent. Quite how that happened is anyone's guess but now means a wait whilst a replacement is Fedexed from California. Bummer.

What can one do about this? I have contacted BA via email, so far nothing.

Ho hum, thats life I guess, its just a pain in the ass as now I'm the one who is suffering and will also have to prove the damage was done during the time the gear was in transport with them........:angry2:

Such is life,
Mark.
Click to expand...

Mark:

The gorillas can break anything in a soft side bag and they are much more likely to throw it around since they grab a strap and heave. You need some kind of hard case but the pelicans and similar are WAY too heavy. Check out Rubbermaid Action Packers - they are light enough - only a few pounds but are stiff/strong enough to protect your gear if wrapped in foam or bubble wrap like you describe. They are cheap too, only about 30 USD at Walmart or similar.

If somebody reminds me I'll post some photos later.

I almost asked if those housings weren't supposed to be bullet proof - but that would have been a cheap shot:biggrin: - basically any housing needs some level of impact resistant protection since there is always something vulnerable.
 
I feel for you. A year and a half ago I returned from Panama to find my Aaton xtr prod body destroyed inside my pelican case. The case was fine the lenses were fine the camera body was a complete write off. The tech at Abel Cine said he had never seen a camera so badly damaged. The camera was purposefully destroyed by someone in transit. I have been waiting for my Red One ever since. I'm so glad it was insured.
 
You can pack your gear in the best hard cases in the world and the Airlines can somehow manage to break the contents.
Here's a few airline baggage horror stories:
I was boarding a plane in Huston a couple years ago and saw the baggage handler kicking bags into the plane next to us. He was standing in the rear cargo area and as the bags would come up the conveyor belt, he'd boot it to the back of the plane as hard as he could.
I was boring a plane in (New York? I can't remember) and saw one of those multi-cart baggage transporting tractor things going full speed dragging a bag underneath it.
I returned home one time to find that the airline had lost my personal bag. No big deal, nothing valuable in it. Two weeks later it shows up at my door with a hole ripped in it like something metal had been showed completely through both sides and it was so badly chewed up and bent that at the time I had imagined it had been caught in some horrible conveyor belt accident. This was before I had witnessed the bag dragging episode in New York, so now I'm not sure how it happened, but it wasn't pretty.
We now ship everything but the camera to our destination via FedEx and break the camera down into body and lens to carry on the planes. Not like FedEx is gentle with our gear, but we've found them to be better than the airlines.
________
Colorado Medical Marijuana Dispensary
 
Mark,
I feel your pain my friend. I have had my fair share of bags that were beat to hell. On the positive side, if there is a positive side, at least the iris rod was bent so badly that you couldn't help but notice it. I had a rod bend on me but it was subtle enough not to notice.
First dive on the trip, 80ft I saw that the flood light was blinking. The bent rod had compromised the oring and my Z1 about to take a swim. I saved the camera but it was a sour feeling indeed.
Sorry for the bad news though and hope you get a new housing in short order.
-Jason
 
I had TSA at the security Xray line send my camera through and dam near dropped it off the end of the line. I started yelling and sreaming. You would have thought I was a bad guy the way they all closed in on me and the two airport police officers. I have had nothing but trouble over the years. Our last big project we sent most of the gear ahead of us. Talk about being nervous.

The last three months I have been going to Mexico. Now I have a good contact and will just take my underwater gear there and leave it. I hate flying around with it.

2261_1196789479.jpg
 
Greg Syverson said:
I had TSA at the security Xray line send my camera through and damn near dropped it off the end of the line. I started yelling and screaming. You would have thought I was a bad guy the way they all closed in on me and the two airport police officers.
Click to expand...

Yelling and screaming is probably not a good idea when addressing most situations. Indulging in it in a security situation is even worse.

Maybe anger management training is a better idea. ;-)
 
So I.m sitting in business class waiting to fly off to New Zeland and as I looked out the window I see a baggage tram come speeding up to the side of our plane. The guy does a high speed turn that a stunt driver would be proud of an I see a large hard case go flying off the top of the stack of baggage on to the tarmac. Upon closer inspection I see it's the Showscan 65mm camera body case (one of only two in the world at the time) laying on it's side on the runway. Ah well I think it's good to be in business class so at least I can start drinking those little bottles of scotch as fast as possible before we even leave the ground. lol Got lucky on that one as I had specified at least eight inches of closed cell foam on all sides of the camera for that particular case. Pay the extra baggage costs and buy well made cases.
 
Greg--

Yikes! You have a lot different ideas about stress relief than I do! (Unless you're referring to your lady friend, instead of your snake friend.)
 
Looks like fun! And with the snow flying across the Northern Plains, Mexico is starting to look good, too. ;-)
 
An Alaska story for you Greg.

Not even carry-ons and hard cases are effective solutions to callous baggage handlers.

While flying up to Alaska to shoot a promo for a fly-fishing lodge on the Alagnak River, my gear received the most horrendous treatment from DELTA AIRLINES (this is for you Delta).

When I fly up to Alaska, I always make sure that I am NOT flying on the small commuter jets, but the airline had made changes and I indeed was on a puddle jumper on the first leg to my transfer in Salt Lake. I had my iMac well packed in a carry on designed for it and my camera gear checked through in a Pelican case. Sure enough, upon boarding, the flight attendants insisted that my carry-on was too big and I had to put my computer in the hold. No amount of debate would convince them otherwise. I stuck "FRAGILE" stickers all over it and asked them to not just toss it in with the other baggage. AND sure enough, as I was watching them unload the baggage out of the plane in SLC, my computer (the first off the plane) was chucked onto the conveyor, landed only half way on and proceeded in taking a nose dive off the top of the belt on to the tarmac. Amazingly the only damage was a key popped off of the keyboard.

Then after arriving in Anchorage at 2:00 am, I lifted my Pelican case from the baggage carousel and it flew open throwing my camera and gear everywhere. Horrors ... the inspectors had not closed the latches securely. Several other passengers scrambled to collect my stuff as it was traveling around the carousel. I filed a report and again, amazingly, nothing was lost or damaged, so I had no claim or satisfaction from Delta. I did publicly rail against Delta through out the airport, but the fact that the place was empty left little impact.

It would have been tragically comic if it were not my livelihood in danger.
All I can think is that I must have some very hardworking gear angels in place.

I feel that flying around the Bush, in an out of Bush planes and jet boats, my gear is safer than on DELTA.

What to do?
 
I don't share your interest in wildlife so much, but I sure enjoy being out in the middle of the wilderness after sunset.

The difference is that while you let God handle the DP responsibilities, I follow the cues of native carvers and add my own lighting to help their efforts float a bit above the surface.

http://sio.midco.net/billg201/Adobe Web Photo Gallery 2/
 
Well,

I used to "pad and hide" housings in soft bags, inside countless layers of wetsuits, ski socks, clothes, bath sponges, you name it. I still remember a narrow minded customs officer muttering between his teeth "faggot" when he took out a huge pink bath sponge, but sure enough, I am now the proud owner of 8 Peli cases and that'll be that. Yes, they treat them badly because they look exactly like they contain valuable stuff, but close cell foam will do the trick in most cases, and at least they cannot be skewered or penetrated and Peli cases (1650's) are so heavy they cannot physically throw them around. I swear by them.

And as for yelling and screaming, just because we all live in dangerous times where totally understandable fears and some not so phobias permeate the airport atmosphere does not give those workers the right to mess up your property, the very gear your livelihood depends on and on which you've invested so much hard earned money. Hard to remain calm and collected when they mishandle your belonggins with such wanton disregard. It seems they feel above the law because they provide a valuable service for us and any of our requests is nothing but unjustified and unpatriotic whining. So, I arrive three hours early and insist on witnessing all the gear inspection and make sure they close the latches securely. They don't like it, but we travelers still have rights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top