We Wouldn’t Want Anyone Hijacking The Plane With An Endpin

Any professional musician can tell you horror stories of trying to get his instrument onto a commercial airline in defiance of overzealous TSA screeners, overworked desk agents, and harried flight attendants. But Northwest Airlines appears to have hit a new low in musician relations: students from a Minnesota high school orchestra were shocked last week when Northwest refused to allow their insruments in the cabin, and charged $1600 to place them in the cargo hold, from whence several cellos and basses emerged broken and unplayable. The airline says it probably isn’t liable.