In my assessment this is United's fault for having a safety hazard on their plane. Am I not allowed to accidentally drop something on the floor without fear of it disappearing into a bottomless pit? Rationally I think they will tell me to pound sand. The only path I see is that I can raise a stink about safety hazards and them allowing aircraft to take off with foreign objects in the hull.
Now a year later, I got a call from an aircraft mechanic on the East Coast. He found my Zune on a 757 while doing some work in the hull of the aircraft. Among other items he found jewelry and a Canadian passport in the same spot. So my mp3 player has been flying around the country for the past year, and is now on its way back to me.
The plane had recently been taken on a test flight following some heavy maintenance. During the flight, a “hydraulic driven generator” failed, leading repair crews to return to the plane after it landed. At some point, the landing gear lever was moved to the “up” position, apparently without any pins having been placed in the landing gear to prevent it from moving.
