TSA Damaged my gear...

[SloppyJoe]

Arrived in Cabo today to discover TSA. Went through my gear bag and broke the Mares regulator shell case. Everything was thrown in and I’m worried about my wing being damaged from their “gentle inspection”. Nothing coiled neatly. Nothing close to it. Everything crammed in the bag with a broken reg case. Won’t be able to check anything else until I get to the dive shop tomorrow. I’m not about to bring the gear to the pool where tons of people drinking are constantly peeing into the pool......
I’m pretty pissed....

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

That sucks. It’s mainly the reason I always insist on taking my check gear to oversized so it can go through the X-ray and check whilst I’m there.

 

[hroark2112]

Never check refs, cameras, or dive computers. Carry on everything you can.

 

[SloppyJoe]

I will be doing things differently as a result of this. Thanks for the advice to a new diver. I welcome ALL the pearls everyone. Please keep them coming.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I will be doing things differently as a result of this. Thanks for the advice to a new diver. I welcome ALL the pearls everyone. Please keep them coming.

the other good thing about taking your luggage to oversized yourself is you checkin, get your ‘cabin luggage’ tags and then you can move stuff from your checked luggage to your cabin luggage between the checkin desk and oversized luggage dropoff and not fall foul of any ‘overweight cabin luggage’ issues...

 

[SloppyJoe]

On a lighter note, I hope to begin AOW tomorrow. Another bonus is that these are boat dives, which I have learned to really appreciate since all my diving lately has been shore dives. My Discover dive was a my only boat dive and after swimming around the west coast in cold water, this should be a very nice change of scene. Cheers

 

[Doc Harry]

I had a truly frightening experience with TSA once.

I had a NiMH HID light for cave diving that I kept in a Pelican case. In case you're not familiar, the HID lights have large canister batteries. The light doesn't turn on right away when activated - it takes a couple of seconds to illuminate. And the light gets very hot when turned on, and needs water cooling. The light head can be plugged into "dummy" battery slots for storage without risk of activating the light.

I usually hand carry the light with me on the airplane. But on one occasion I placed the HID light and Pelican case in my checked suitcase. I triple checked make sure that the light head was plugged into the "dummy" slots in the battery.

When I returned home, I opened my HID light Pelican case and was HORRIFIED. Inside of the Pelican, was a charred note from TSA that they had opened and inspected the contents of the Pelican case. The light head had been plugged into the battery terminals and the switch was still turned on. The light head was completely melted, and the other contents of the Pelican case were melted and charred.

My belief is that TSA plugged in the battery and turned on the light. When the light did not turn on right away, they figured that the battery was dead and put the light back into the Pelican case.

TSA adamantly refused any responsibility for my destroyed $1,500 light. Of course, insurance only covers $400 of checked luggage.

 

[Scared Silly]

Take pictures and file a claim with the TSA over the damage. I have filed several, one of which was to spite them, especially when I asked my local congressional office to get involved. No quarter for those !@#$%.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I had a truly frightening experience with TSA once.

I had a NiMH HID light for cave diving that I kept in a Pelican case. In case you're not familiar, the HID lights have large canister batteries. The light doesn't turn on right away when activated - it takes a couple of seconds to illuminate. And the light gets very hot when turned on, and needs water cooling. The light head can be plugged into "dummy" battery slots for storage without risk of activating the light.

I usually hand carry the light with me on the airplane. But on one occasion I placed the HID light and Pelican case in my checked suitcase. I triple checked make sure that the light head was plugged into the "dummy" slots in the battery.

When I returned home, I opened my HID light Pelican case and was HORRIFIED. Inside of the Pelican, was a charred note from TSA that they had opened and inspected the contents of the Pelican case. The light head had been plugged into the battery terminals and the switched was still turned on. The light head was completely melted, and the other contents of the Pelican case were melted and charred.

My belief is that TSA plugged in the battery and turned on the light. When the light did not turn on right away, they figured that the battery was dead and put the light back into the Pelican case.

TSA adamantly refused any responsibility for my destroyed $1,500 light. Of course, insurance only covers $400 of checked luggage.

going forward : note in case : Hey numbnuts, don’t plug the battery in and put the light back in the case!

 

[Doc Harry]

going forward : note in case : Hey numbnuts, don’t plug the battery in and put the light back in the case!

I had a note for TSA about the large NiMH light - that the battery was unregulated and permitted in checked luggage.
Next time I will add a note that says "KEEP YOUR F&*$@*G HANDS OFF MY LIGHT!"