The BBC reported in “Cabin Baggage Ban Hits Musicians” something the rest of us hadn’t quickly realized. The terrorist plot to fling burning aircraft and dying people from the skies (in order to please their god) will result in disruption for everyone. It will particularly hit musicians and artists who need instruments that they care deeply about.
For example,
Russian musicians returning from London after the Bolshoi Theatre’s season face an overland journey because of the new UK cabin baggage ban on planes.
They are under contract to keep their instruments with them and cannot check them in as hold baggage, chief conductor Alexander Vedernikov said.
They will probably have to travel by rail via Paris, he added.
It beats dying in flames but, for musicians, photographers, videographers and the like; this will be a difficult act. When I was hard at work in years past, my camera bag was never out of my sight. When boarding a plane I was ready with empty cameras that could be opened and clear, plastic bags for the film cans to be hand checked. Luckily, I am no longer working and can no longer fly. But what about the photographers who are? What about the violinist with their back-country fiddle from generations-past or the Stradivarius with a big insurance policy that would still not replace its’ sound?
Celtic style Bodhran (visitHobgoblin-USA ).
The terrorists may be widely hated and many people will support each other to help in travel. But will the sticky-fingered baggage people or the big-city airport mafias stop shopping the baggage carts? If your clothes are lost for a few days you can buy some T-shirts and jeans. If your four Nikons, twelve lenses and four flashes go missing (probably never to return) will you be able to rent quickly enough to splash your genius in the client’s face? Will the symphony wait until you find a replacement cello, piccolo, bass, or kettle drum?
Julia Morneweg, a German freelance cellist, always booked an extra seat for the cello. Many musicians do. The BBC quoted her as relating,
“These restrictions are a disaster for me,” she wrote in a posting on the BBC’s Have Your Say before flying to Zurich.
After her arrival in Switzerland, she recounted the ordeal of having to hand over the cello, valued at up to £10,000 ($19,000) and not covered by her insurance if carried in the hold.
“It is never safe enough in the hold and they don’t treat instruments properly,” she told the BBC News website.
She was not allowed to see the cello being put in and had to hand it over to the bulky items desk despite asking for it to be treated like a child’s pram, which would have allowed her to keep tabs on it right up until boarding.
“I looked out the window and could see it wobbling on the luggage trolley,” she said.
CNN just published a guide to “Airline Security Rules” by country. These are the guidelines, for the moment, for the USA.
Travelers boarding commercial flights at a U.S. airport will not be allowed to carry “any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions” onto airliners.
Passengers on flights from Great Britain are prohibited from carrying electronics on board. There are no such restrictions on people traveling on domestic flights or from the U.S. to Great Britain.
Beverages purchased beyond security checkpoints must be consumed before boarding — they will not be permitted aboard the aircraft.
TSA screeners will recheck every bag at boarding gates for banned items, preventing passengers from carrying items purchased in boarding areas.
Gate-side inspections are taking place for all passengers on flights to Great Britain. On other flights, the TSA is conducting random gate-side inspections.
Federal security directors — the top TSA officials at airports — have discretion on how to implement the new policy. They can also use any resource available to conduct the inspections, meaning they can use their own screeners, state and local law enforcement personnel or airline personnel.
Are musicians and photographers the only people to be hurt by this latest attack on civilization? Hardly! Businessmen won’t want to see their laptops on that baggage cart and what, I wonder, will the diamond merchant do with his sample case? But the crazies are targeting your music now! It is surely time to nip their buds. Said one composer who travels lightly and would not, himself, be affected, he is looking forward to his next tour with his musicians as being a long trip — by ship.
