Actually it's not impossible. I had a shipment "lost" for 4 days once. In actual fact I'm almost positive it was in the ATL warehouse the entire time.
I tracked the flight, it never checked into cargo, I went to cargo, somebody supposedly went to look for it and it "wasn't there". I initiated a trace on it, and somebody from Delta called me every morning and every evening for 3 days to say they were working on it.
After 4 days, I had to go down that way to drop somebody at the passenger terminal, so I figured since I was in the area I'd go check at Cargo just in case. I had to convince somebody to get off their rear to go and LOOK in the warehouse... but sure enough, there it was and most likely had been most of the time. Left hand has no idea what right hand is doing and nobody is paid to think about that shipment that says, "LIVE FISH" that's been there for some days might need a second look, never mind the "Notify upon Arrival" mention on the waybill. Even though it was there it was never checked into their system and nobody ever notified me it was there (I never wait for the call anyway - I track it and the flight myself and show up accordingly).
Fortunately for me the shipment was all corals, and I did have some losses but a surprisingly high number survived. Delta did pay out a claim for "service failure".
Nowadays I don't leave until I have my shipment, no matter who gets annoyed with me when I politely insist that they physically go and LOOK for themselves (although that didn't help either with that "lost" shipment...)
Never underestimate the incompetence of the airlines.
Jenn
