I note that checked bags cannot block passengers from escaping an aircraft. Perhaps someone will someday quantify the additional risk airlines forced on passengers when they started charging for every bag.
One of my favorites: http://www.askthepilot.com/essaysandstories/the-exploding-to...
It seems he came back to slate.com as a one-time thing, but you can read his archived work at Salon and at www.askthepilot.com. He seems to have a book as well now.
I actually just read it the other day and was pretty interesting (and a quick read)
So now that checked bags cost money, people bring more and larger carry-on luggage. This additional carry-on luggage:
1. increases boarding times. 2. increases injuries from passengers and flight attendants lifing heavy bags into overhead compartments. 3. increases the amount of crowding on a cabin from under seat carry-ons thus increasing evacuation times.
A couple times gear was delayed, and so the FE team had to wait a day or so for it to arrive, but nothing has ever been stolen.
Nice thing about a Pelican Case - no straps to get tangled up in any baggage sorting gear, and large enough that it doesn't usually get stuck in the corner somewhere.
From a probability perspective, much more likely to get mugged coming out of the airport, or getting hijacked using your equipment in the field - this has happened to our Field Engineers multiple times, but no losses in the airplanes (yet).
You put $100k of equipment in checked luggage, then you probably have some very specific insurance that covers you. If you don't, you are lucky. Most people most of the time do not have anything stolen.
If a baggage handler steals a $3000 camera out of someone's luggage, the airline will totally deny liability.
Here's an article interviewing a former TSA handler who was arrested with more than 80 stolen cameras and other assorted electronics in his home at the time of arrest. http://rt.com/usa/tsa-stealing-from-travelers-358/
I don't think this is as big a problem as one makes it out to be and here is why. There are certain things I need when I travel that I can't afford to go without in the case my checked bags don't make it to my destination at the same time as me. Things such as prescription medicine, contacts and my retainer (though not nearly as important as the previous two but still important none the less) are things I always carry on because they are things I can't easily replace if my bags are lost. Then I bring the entertainment, usually a laptop and/or a tablet and books/magazines. All of that stuff would need to be in at least one carry on.
Most, if not all, of the airlines I have flown have a limit to how many bags you can carry on. So it isn't like charging for check bags is going to have people start bringing 10 carry ons, it would have them bring the max if they wanted which as far as I know is 2 for most airlines.
Perhaps not, but people standing in the aisle reaching to get them, dropped bags people trip over and block the aisle, etc do.