Most likely by airline thugs...

My entire scuba luggage was stolen (or "mishandled") by the airlines on a three week trip to Maldives in October. At least my camera gear made it and with a little help from my friends and a frantic shopping trip in Male, I was able to have a great vacation and get some awesome Manta photos.

Here's a list of what went missing:
Atomic Titanium T2X regulator - serial no. KE0058
Uwatec Galileo Luna computer - serial no. 1003040111147
Uwatec Aladin AirZ O2 computer (wrist unit)
Dive Rite Transplate harness w/ OxyCheq backplate & wing
Atomic SS1 "safe-second" regulator - serial no. ?
Scubapro Frameless mask w/ prescription gauge readers
Mares Quatro Excel fins - blue
Henderson Hyperstretch XXL mens wetsuit (yeah XXL - hard fit in Male)
All in a brown Dakine large roller duffle bag.

My hope is that someone tries to get future service on the regulator or computer and that the shop does a serial number check. Anyone have any experience or knowledge about manufacturers tracking serial numbers?

I am sorry to hear that happen.The nice rolling Scuba gear bags look KOOL,,, but also alerts theives, as to their content. When traveling, I pack all my gear in an old beat-up Samsonite hardcase luggage. It has never even been opened .

Which airline? Be sure to file a claim. I know someone who had their $1400 camera taken from carry-on after the airline (AA) started taking carry-on luggage because of supposed lack of room in the cabin. Backpack was lost, got shipped back via UPS or FedEx. Regulator was there, camera was gone. He filed a claim expecting some crap like a few hundred frequent flier miles and ended up getting fully reimbursed. Cool cause he got the camera replaced, bad because all the photos of his trip were gone.

Long story short, I hate those stupid luggage apes that work for airports. They're on my list as the lowest form of life that walks this Earth

Oh one more thing. You might *try* and file a police report about it. They'll give you the 'not in our jurisdiction' bull****. Just tell them that you really just want the serial numbers to be put in NCIC (National Crime Information Center) in case the items were stolen. Odds are low that an officer will help you with that but it's always worth taking a long shot. If the items are placed into the NCIC database they are much more likely to be recovered if someone were to take them to a pawn shop.

Wow! Major loss on the way to a big trip! A lot of those items are what I pack in my roll-on to avoid checking, but then some planes lack space for those and they end up gate checked anyway.

The airline is certainly responsible and surely you filed a claim. Checked luggage is covered by lower limits for international flights than within the US tho, depending on whether the flight was covered by the Warsaw or Montreal convention. Trip Ins? Home owners?

Sorry to hear about the mishap, nice recovery of the trip though.

If you are close enough to the airport it may be worth your while to go take a look thru lost bag hell. Every airline has one, a room where unidentifiable bags go to die. I once picked up my brother & sister in law at Newark. They spent a week in Jamaica with no luggage, nothing. In Newark a nice gentleman directed us to the lost bag area. It took all of 2 seconds to spot the 2 baby diaper yellow Samsonite bags (I think they discontinued the color after these 2 were made). My point being that your bag may not have ever left the original airport. The baggage people don't get paid enough to give a damn. Bring your biggest smile & nicest attitude, these people take guff all day long so if you're friendly, they'll respond in kind & let you take a look.

To prevent loss of camera and images, I always carry my film/digital media separately from my camera. I only mention this because someone mentioned their camera was stolen at one point in the thread. Ideally, no one wants to loose their camera, but I figure why double the risk of loosing camera and images. I also try to seperate certain aspects of my gear such as regs and computer from my BC.Likelihood of them getting every bag gets lessened. and I stay away from those nice looking rolling bags and just use typical hard style luggage.