TORONTO, Aug 24 (AFP) - The Stanley Cup, ice hockey's holy grail, disappeared for several tense hours over the weekend after suffering the indignity of being bumped off a flight just like any grubby suitcase.
Walter Neubrand, who travels the world protecting the trophy awarded to the top team in the US and Canada-based National Hockey League, waited for the case carrying the Cup to come off a luggage carousel in western Canada on Sunday.
But he felt the sinking feeling familiar to travelers everywhere when the reinforced blue case carrying the famed Cup never appeared.
It turned out that Air Canada bumped the Cup from a flight from Vancouver to Fort St John in British Columbia deeming it to heavy.
The Cup was to have been property for a day for Jake Goertzen, head scout for the champions Tampa Bay Lightning in line with a tradition by which team members and staff get to spend a day with the venerable trophy.
Airline agents tracked the precious cargo down to a secured warehouse in Vancouver, and it was flown on to Fort St John on Monday.
The Stanley Cup, which bears the name of every winning team and player, has near mythic significance in Canada, where ice hockey is part of the social fabric of the country.
"The Stanley Cup is the most important non-religious artifact in Canada," William Julian, publisher of the Alaska Highway News told the Globe and Mail newspaper.
The Stanley Cup, a silver and nickel alloy bowl, weighs 34.5 pounds (15.5 kilogrammes) and stands 89 centimetres (35 inches) high.
It was presented in 1892 by the British Lord Stanley of Preston, to "the championship hockey club of the Dominion of Canada."