[viewerviewer2009]

I flew from Buffalo, New York to Taipei, Taiwan in July. The carriers were Delta first from Buffalo to JFK and then China Airlines from JFK to Taipei. When I arrived at my destination, I opened up my luggage and found that my camcorder was stolen. It is so obvious that this is targeted theft. It is probably TSA employees teamed up with airlines employees to steal passengers' items.

From reading the treads here, I realized that this is quite common. This is so disgusting. Unless there is a regulation of some sort to protect the customers, I don't see the thieves stopping anytime soon.

Reporting theft cases is a good idea to warn customers to stay away from certain airlines.

[jimworcs]

I can think of no good reason why this large scale theft is not dealt with. Sooner or later a police chief in some city will decide to do something about the thieves who work for airlines.

There should be video surveillence of the entire process. Bags can be tracked throughout the process. There is nothing like the same scale of complaints on theft on FedEx..because the management take it seriously and track every package, they have cameras everywhere and the staff know that this kind of thing is not tolerated. The airline managers tolerate theft... and that is why it happens.

[Mrs.J Airline Employee]

An airport is very different than a FedEx opperation.

It is owned and operated by the government and all security measures must be passed through them as well.

Bottom line is, we can't place cameras even if the airline wanted to because it would violate Homeland Security to have them. No filming can take place by law in the TSA inspection area where they randomly search and scan checked luggage (they are supposed to place a form inside the luggage when items are removed and instructions on how to retreive them). It isn't that the airline doesn't care ...
The airline DEFINATELY takes theft seriously. They take all claims and track what flights and days items went missing on and have corporate security go to watch employees (unknown to them) and attempt to catch those doing it. Such claims are rare but when employees are caught, they are not only fired, they are promptly arrested as well ... since stealing at the airport is charged harshly because it is on federal property.
99.999% of the agents I know, wouldn't risk their jobs or standing with the law over a piece of jewelry or tech item.