After Flair Airlines lost a Nanaimo hockey fan’s gifted NHL hockey stick from Bo Horvat in January, the same thing appears to have happened to a 12-year-old from Ucluelet.
An invite to Las Vegas for a friend’s birthday on April 11 was an experience Mason Midlane of Ucluelet won’t forget anytime soon.
One of his favourite teams, the Seattle Kraken, was playing the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and in a warm-up before the game, Mason used a sign to try to entice one of his favourite players Daniel Sprong to give him a hockey stick.
“It said, ‘Sprong #91 we flew over 2000 km to see this game — rock, paper, scissors for your stick?'” Midlane told CHEK News.
And to his amazement, the sign worked.
“At the end of warm-ups, it looked like he was going to go off the ice, and he went onto the bench and grabbed one of his sticks and started skating over to us, and we were both just in shock — we never thought that would happen,” added Midlane.
“Thank you. No way,” he and his friend can be heard saying on a video recording of the exchange.
The stick was a Bauer AG5NT with Sprong’s name on it, and Mason held it close to him for the duration of the game and the following four days.
But when it was time to leave Las Vegas, he was told the stick could not go through security, so for $75, they checked it in as their only checked baggage and boarded the direct Flair Airlines flight to Vancouver.
“And then we got to Vancouver, and the stick just wasn’t there,” he said.
They waited for hours but were told the plane was empty and the stick was gone.
“I don’t want to think someone took it, but it hasn’t turned up. It’s two weeks later, so I don’t know where else it could be,” said Carrie Midlane, Mason’s mother.
“I was in more shock that when I got the stick than when it just didn’t show up, I was really sad,” added Mason.
They say they have tried numerous times to get an answer from Flair Airlines without any luck other than what appears to be a “form letter” in reply.
On Monday morning CHEK News sent Flair Airlines a request for information and was told the inquiry was being looked into, but there was no further response before our deadline.
The Bo Horvat stick lost by Flair Airlines in January was eventually found and returned to the Canucks fan.
Midlane is hoping for the same outcome.
READ ALSO: Lost Bo Horvat stick found, to be returned to Nanaimo brothers: ‘We are so grateful’
Dean Stoltz
