Ran into this
video, by singer/songwrite/guitar player Dave Carroll about his
experience checking his guitar on United Airlines and trying to
recover damages when it was broken. He claims it will be a trilogy. The link on the youtube page
is broken, so here’s
a little more information about the incident.
This is a serious problem for all musicians who travel, and
more of them should be fighting back this way. I know of several
large recorders that have suffered serious damage in airline
travel.
LayMusic.org 
My friend who flew with a great bass recorder and had it both lost and damaged confirms that this did happen on United. But they did eventually find it and compensate him for the damage.