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When Airlines Attack: Tales of Destroyed, Lost and (Occasionally) Found Instruments

Broken musical instruments and airplane luggageGetty | Getty

Most musicians have to tour, but traveling from city to city in a bus or van isn't always the ideal mode of transportation. Many jump at the chance to fly to gigs if it works financially and logistically, but a series of incidents over the years has resulted in some groups and singers realizing the perils of flying the friendly skies -- namely instruments that are damaged, broken, misplaced or simply lost.

While this has certainly happened in past decades, the rise of social media has left many musicians with an immediate outlet to vent at their situations, especially when airlines customer service departments have no clue where the instruments might be.

Just days ago, Canadian synth-pop star Lights almost had to do a show in Phoenix without her gear. The world quickly learned it was Air Canada's fault. The result of this rippling bad PR has meant some airlines paying a little bit more attention to instruments, especially after a certain song about a broken guitar which eventually cost the company's shareholders a (debatable) $180,000,000!

Here are 10 airline instrument incidents which musicians have endured, sometimes with a happy ending, sometimes with a bummed artist buying a replacement and and in one strange case, a welcome reunion between a rock legend and his beloved guitar three decades after it was lost.

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Jimmy Fingers

This is painful! I don't think I'd ever ever check in my guitar again after reading this. Neither would the fellows over at myrockbook.com. o_0

Saturday at 7:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Peter Jaspers-Fayer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8SVVKEb8Tkc

January 15 2013 at 3:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
adrian guglielmo

you should see what the airlines do to wheelchairs

November 08 2012 at 11:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gary Saint Mancheste

back in the 80's..I opened my bass case to discover the bridge broken and missing parts..WTF?...a stop at Guitar Center Hollywood fixed it on the way to the gig from the plane....now I buy a seat for my ax...

November 04 2012 at 11:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
steve

As an Airline Employee I will never check anything valuable. NEVER put anything in your checked baggage that you DO NOT want to lose. You now have Baggage Handlers and the TSA stealing items from baggage. I try not to have to check my baggage, I now carry a man bag. PLEASE include where YOU ARE GOING an address and phone number taped INSIDE the luggage, and we COLLECT the leather attached tags to the luggage. Use stick-on name and phone number labels. I painted a bright yellow line on my luggage so I can spot it right away, they made at least 132,123 of the same luggage you own. People are stealing luggage from the airports. claiming it is theirs. .mmm

November 04 2012 at 10:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oratorcc

WTF !!! I`m looking for the Ray Davies story... GD I`m Fed Up With AOL !!

November 04 2012 at 7:58 PM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to oratorcc's comment
danmanzter

Yeah, as usual AOL was misleading. If you go through the slideshow, It was Dave Davies of The Kinks that lost his guitar in 1965, not his brother Ray. GOD SAVE THE KINKS!

November 04 2012 at 8:42 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
billytaxi

With homeland security so good that they could find and track my grandmother nail file, I'm surprised that they could lose something so large as a musical instrument.
Wait a minute! You don't think that maybe their stealing this stuff?

November 04 2012 at 5:57 PM Report abuse +4 rate up rate down Reply
ncaok

TV set on top of my surfboard, they aren too swift ( more damage than my surfing a rocky coast for 3 months). Remember the SAVAGE Baggage Handlers commercial showing them as Gorrillas?

November 04 2012 at 5:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
KJDJ4028

The "lost" problems for frequent fllyers is not restricted to airlines. In November 2011, I lost an $800. money clip at the TSA inspection point at American Airlines JFK. Attempts to reach some responsible party were impossible. NYPD told me "those people steal from passengers every day."

November 04 2012 at 2:07 PM Report abuse +4 rate up rate down Reply
Horn Doctor

Lets put it this way. If your guitar is a $50,000 taylor or Martin or a $15,000 57 Fender Strat or a 59 Les Paul Gibson, the airlines are still to be held responsible for your instrument.

November 04 2012 at 1:53 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply