Airport Stolen Gear Report Forum

We'd like to get a thread going where dive travelers can report incidents, past and present if their gear was ever stolen or damaged by any particular airport.

Right now if you all have some suggestions on what the post formats should look like if at all, and post such suggestions, just like Lottie came up with a great format for people expressing their ScubaMagazine.net Group Dive Travel location suggestions, we'd like to hear from you.

So far I personally have not had anything stolen, which makes me lucky, as for just myself my two checked in bags and one carry-on and a small backpack always contain an average of $33,000 worth of rebreather, diving and HD pro video rig equipment.

We've heard too many divers talk about stolen gear at the San Juan Airport in Puerto Rico in the past, we're not sure if that has changed.

We'd like to correlate the information and take it to the ministries of tourism of the respective countries and show them how tourism is being hurt by the crimes at their airports.

By the same token, let us know what airports have done a super job and you've never had a problem, we'll compliment their ministries of tourism too.

Opinions?

That actually crossed my mind and I started to include it, then decided it might muddy things up, but we could upon popular request make a separate section for that.

Why, has an airline done you wrong?

Ok, silly question! lol

This is an excellent idea. Recently I refused an opportunity to film a cruise group since they were flying into San Juan airport in Puerto Rico. I have never travelled there and have no first hand experience with anyone losing gear but after reading posts on other forums about photographic equipment loss at that airport I am disinclined to go there. So, the damage has already been done.

Now, about good experiences in airports. Recently, when returning from Manado I expected to experience a lengthy delay and all sorts of questions regarding my camera equipment. Imagine my surprise to be met by a rather attractive young lady who very politely processed my tickets and checked my baggage all the way through to Toronto without any excess baggage charges. She was extremely gracious and cordial throughout and even apologized that she was not able to provide me with a boarding pass for the last leg of my trip. Kudos to Manado airport. Now, if only they would stop people smoking everywhere.

Traveling half way around the world to go diving gives a completely new meaning to "red-eye". After leaving the Santiki Hotel in Manado on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. we spent an hour or so by bus traveling to the airport and then waited another hour for the plane. A 4 hour flight landed us in Singapore where I faced a 6 hour layover. No problem though since Singapore airport sports more upscale retail stores than several shopping malls combined. It is really amazing and afforded me the opportunity to post to several diving forums one last time at the free high speed internet terminals. I also enjoyed a couple of movies at the free movie cinema. Then I boarded the plane for a 6 hour flight to Shanghai where I faced another 8 hour layover. Not to worry, my luggage had been checked through to Toronto. So, I languished on benches and in the coffee shop ($4 for a coffee) until my flight gate was posted. I still had to get a boarding pass so waited in line with all the other passengers. Once I reached the counter I was informed that before they would issue me a boarding pass I would have to collect my luggage since nothing is transferred from one airline to another at Shanghai airport. Making your way through Shanghai airport at 6:30 a.m. is not much of a problem since there is nobody there, trying to make your way down to the arrivals level through throngs of people completely oblivious to your presence, all chattering in a language that is completely foreign to me, is quite another. I had to go through the security searches again before I could claim my luggage, then it was back upstairs to the departures level. I waited in line once again until they closed the gate. Apparently, in my absence they figured they had enough passengers to make the flight to Toronto cost effective. So, I had to cut through a line of indignant fellow travelers to get to the ticket counter where I was informed that my luggage was overweight and payment would be required at the counter at the far end of the aisle. So, off I go to pay the overweight fee and return to get my boarding pass. Not so fast; apparently my luggage requires a security search. Expecting to have to explain the intricacies of an underwater video housing in English, to people whose mother tongue is Chinese, and may have no idea what I was talking about, I was confronted with my dive gear bag and instructed through hand signals to open the regulator bag. They could not seem to make any sense of the regulator until I shoved it into my mouth. They still didn't understand but they let me through anyway. Now I received my boarding pass and had to go through customs. So, again I waited in line until it was my turn whereupon the police officer manning the booth showed me a form that I was supposed to have filled out. I am now directed toward a table at the far end of the floor and so, with form in hand, I go over to the desk and, under the watchful eye of armed security, complete the necessary documentation and then go back to waiting in line. Once through customs I now have to negotiate the complete length of Shanghai airport to get to the Air Canada gate and again I sit and wait. 45 minutes after the plane is supposed to have left the airport we start the boarding process and eventually everyone gets on the plane. Now, for the past several flights we have enjoyed the luxury of being attended to by rather attractive, young Asian flight attendants who seem to have an innate ability to realize and attend to your needs before you even realize you have them. Well, most needs anyway. Scair Canada, in comparison, obviously staffs it's flights by tenure. There was one flight attendant who might still have been in her forties, although definitely toward the end of them, two others that you could not pass down the aisle since they consumed so much of the space, and the rest looked as though retirement was either something they were considering in the very near future or something that they were returning from. The service was less than exemplary and the entertainment is still being played on VHS tapes. I know this because several hours into the flight they rewound the tape without pressing stop so I got to watch the whole thing over again, back wards, at high speed. Anything to keep me awake. Mercifully the 14 hour flight to Toronto eventually came to an end and although one of the first off the plane, my luggage was not. So, once again, I was afforded an opportunity to test my patience. Now, with all my luggage in tow, customs declaration forms filled out, I was ready to leave. Having pre-arranged a limousine to pick me up I proceeded to the pick-up area only to be told that since our flight was late, the limousine had left without me. So, I contacted the limousine company and they dispatched another vehicle which arrived 40 minutes later. By now, completely knackered, I just wanted the process to be over but Toronto traffic had other ideas. The trip from the airport to home can be made in twenty minutes during periods of light traffic, or it can be bumper to bumper, stop and go, and take more than an hour to complete. Obviously, we chose the latter. Arriving home, I dumped my bags and went to bed, sleeping for a full 12 hours. Problem is, now it is midnight in Canada but my body keeps telling me it is noon. Perhaps next time I will organize a dive trip that just keeps going in one direction, from dive resort to dive resort all the way around the globe. This will minimize jet lag although it may have a tendency to maximize the costs. Or maybe a round the world live aboard?

A guy on his way to the Digital Shootout in Bonaire (last week) had all his video gear stolen from the airport in San Juan. Bet it's on ebay by now.