As a musician who has watched their guitar being loaded on and off of planes at numerous airports, this latest viral video is a musicians worst nightmare. Unfortunately for guitarist Dave Schneider this very nightmare became reality on a Delta flight from Portland, Maine.
Dave’s vintage Gibson guitar, which is estimated to be worth $10,000, was crushed between the elevator lorry and loading dock after Delta staff refused to allow him to carry his valuable instrument on to the aircraft.
Upon landing in Detroit; an unplanned connecting flight due to bad weather, Schneider said that he “had a bad feeling” and quickly started filming on his iPhone. He filmed this short clip:
It took staff an hour to pry the guitar from between the mobile elevator and service dock. Amazingly the vintage guitar was not totally destroyed and sustained damage to the bridge, neck and tail piece, which is estimated to cost over $1000 to repair.
Dave says that Delta have been giving him the “runaround” with no response from Delta chief exec. Richard Anderson.
Delta have now responded saying “we will be reaching out to the customer directly to discuss how we can make this right.”
This is neither the first, and I expect not the last time, musicians will clash with airlines over damaged instruments.
Check out Dave’s band The LeeVee’s on the web:
Website: http://theleevees.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheLeevees
I'M A GUITARIST... GET ME OUT OF HERE! 