A guitarist has been left fuming after American Airlines shattered his acoustic guitar, sparking outrage online.
Airlines have demonstrated time and again why they have a ‘heavy-handed’ reputation among musicians.
In one of the more grisly cases we’ve seen, Titus Tucker, who has over 35,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, posted images of the aftermath of a flight. In the shared clips, the guitar’s hardshell case is seen badly damaged, and the instrument inside is “unrecognizable.”
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Its back and sides are now separate entities. There’s also a heart-wrenching mangle of wood atop the guitar’s severed top, which looks to have been broken from the soundhole to its edge.
“They dragged it out like a dead body,” he’s heard saying in a video clip. He then points to a brutal-looking gash on the case, saying, “This is a tire; there’s no other explanation.
“That’s a brand new case, and a brand new guitar,” he adds.
One small silver lining is that Gator Cases can be found in the comments, saying, “DM incoming,” which suggests he’s likely getting a new case. But, of course, it does little to rectify the sheer savagery American Airlines has shown toward Tucker’s beloved six-string.
Horror stories like these are, sadly, all too common, and it’s no new phenomenon, either. This is not an isolated incident.
Back in March, a baggage handler went viral on TikTok after a clip of them carelessly tossing guitars around like confetti surfaced on the platform. It very quickly clocked up over four million views.
And in August last year, Emily Wolfe went to war with Southwest Airlines after her guitar was decapitated, despite it being in a hard case. The Airline refused to acknowledge responsibility, as Peter Thorn and Gilby Clarke spoke out about similar gut-punch incidents.
