'How do you lose those?'
The Everett teenager says British Airways lost ten of his best remote-controled gliders. And these were no simple paper airplanes.
They were handmade from carbon fiber, and they're not cheap.
"It's about three $3,000," Brandon said while holding one of the gliders, like the ones he flew in Turkey last week where he came in second place in the world championships.
Brandon and his dad said the ten missing gliders are worth about $35,000.
"We have no clue where they're at," said David Beardsley. "They could be anywhere right now."
At the end of the competition, Brendon and his dad packed the gliders into two, thick plywood crates to ship home. They claim British Airways put a barcode label on each crate, but never scanned them.
"Poof! From the computers' standpoint they do not exist," David said. "These are six-foot-long shipping crates. They weigh a hundred pounds... how do you lose those?"
British Airways did not return calls seeking comment.
David has photos of the packed crates bearing address labels on the outside, and he said he also put similar labels on the inside.
But he only insured the crates for the minimum offered by British Airways.
"There is some insurance on them, but not nearly enough to cover," he said.
Including the memories of the gliders that have come to mean so much to Brendon over the years.
"Especially one of the ones that I flew there," Brendon said, referring to last week's competition. "I had it signed by multiple of the top pilots, and now it's gone. So you can't really replace that."
