Missed a bullet or more correctly, a screwdriver

hollisdwyer

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If I was going to be stabbed, do it here! We arrived in Melbourne late last night so I didn’t discover this until this morning. I had packed this suitcase so tightly that I didn’t think anything could shift around during travel. How this little screwdriver found it way to be able to pierce the Ameritage case, I don’t know. I consider myself very fortunate that it pierced at the seam and absolutely no damage was sustained to the Beau Hannam Tenor Inside. I guess the patron saint of traveling Ukuleles was standing guard.

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:uhoh: Phwew! I would cry if one of my ukes were impaled by a screwdriver... glad the gods of ukulele were smiling on you today!
 
Wow. Can imagine how you felt when you first saw that & didn't know if the ukulele was damaged or not.
Glad that the ukulele was safe.
 
Man that was close. Heart attack city!
 
Nothing like an Ameritage case Hollis. Built like a tank!

The edges are obviously weaker. The photo doesn’t really show the situation well. The Uke case was in a suitcase that was extremely tightly packed with, I thought, no possibility of anything shifting around. How that screwdriver came loose from the pocket it was in and moved to the top of the case and was able to vertically position itself to pierce the case at a 90 degree angle is just mind blowing. The suitcase weighed 68Lbs so no one was tossing it around. Just amazing.
 
Wow, lucky indeed! I'm surprised you checked your lovely Beau Hannam. Was there a reason you didn't carry it on?
 
Wow, lucky indeed! I'm surprised you checked your lovely Beau Hannam. Was there a reason you didn't carry it on?
My carry on allowance was taken up by more delicate items. Also I had total confidence in the Ameritage case which was totally and tightly surrounded by soft cushioning. This has taught me the lesson that if you can imagine something can happen then it probably will no matter what action you take to prevent it.
 
I think it is more lucky that the screwdriver did not penetrate the skin of the suitcase and wreak havoc on the other luggage, or injure a baggage handler. It is an amazing set of angles to get from just being loaded and carried on an aircraft, something would have to be like a hammer on the screwdriver to get it to penetrate.
Hopefully you can still use the screwdriver to fix your glasses.

If I were the paranoid type I’d think that someone did that on purpose but that’s ridiculous.
 
I think this is freaky. What are the actual chances of this happening? A big number!
So glad there was no real damage.
 
I think this is freaky. What are the actual chances of this happening? A big number!
So glad there was no real damage.

The photo that I posted really doesn’t do justice to what actually happened. What you see in the photo was after I removed all the clothing and other items that surrounded the case on the sides and over the top of the Ameritage case. There was absolutely no space between the items that covered the Uke case and the inside lid of the suitcase. That suitcase was packed really tight and in total weighed 68Lbs so I can’t imagine that anyone easily tossed it around.
My heart truely stopped when I saw that the screwdriver had impaled the Uke case and only started beating again when I realised that it couldn’t have hit the instrument inside.
 
That is incredible Hollis, thanks for sharing and thanks for the explanation. It is a good lesson in being extra careful with items made of metal. I never would have thought something like that could happen.
 
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