Air Canada takes responsibility for destroying Juno-nominated band’s guitar

In an Instagram post from earlier today (June 18), the Juno-nominated folk music group Rum Ragged found that their instruments were not handled with care upon their arrival at Pearson International Airport in Mississauga. The post shows one of the group’s guitars in severely damaged condition with the caption reading, “@aircanada We do not want to have to make this post but here we are.”

The rest of the information on the post indicates that beyond the destroyed guitar, Air Canada also lost another of the band’s instruments called a bouzouki. 

“We have seen how your system does not work so we will try this. We hope this gets your attention and maybe you can try to make this right somehow,” read the post. “Please do the right thing and take responsibility for your brutal handling of these instruments”

Insauga.com reached out to Air Canada for comment concerning the incident and representatives within the airline relayed that they take extra caution when musical accommodating instruments. However — even with the added safety precautions — instruments are still relegated to additional passenger luggage in the cabin. 

When questioned about the nature of transporting sensitive materials like musical instruments, Air Canada representatives were not shy to indicate that much of the responsibility falls on the owners. 

“In such instances, instruments must be checked and for this reason, we tell customers their guitars should be packed in a hard shell case. This particular guitar was in a soft shell case,” Air Canada representatives told insauga.com via email. 

As for future steps to remedy the broken and lost instruments, Air Canada representatives indicated that they are covering the costs for the damaged guitar and have already relocated and sent the bouzouki back to the members of Rum Ragged.