It was a story that captured headlines across the province. Rum Ragged shared pictures of a damaged guitar following a flight from London to Toronto en route to home.

The Juno-nominated band Rum Ragged spent the past month performing on the road.

The band’s Air Canada flight from London to Toronto, en route to home, cost them not only a broken guitar but the airline also lost another instrument, a bouzouki, the same one Air Canada’s staff damaged just three months ago. However, as reported on NTV News last night, that instrument has since been returned.

Last night, Air Canada also responded to NTV News. “We deal directly with our customers and are following up with them to apologize and address this matter, including covering the cost of repair of the instrument,” read a statement from Air Canada.

Air Canada cautions bands to follow its policy – Equipment Check In (aircanada.com).

“Generally, we make provisions and take extra care to ensure musical instruments travel safely as we understand their importance to their owners,” Air Canada also said. “Typically we accommodate guitars and other musical instruments in the cabin, and tens of thousands of them travel safely this way each year. 

“But this policy does come with limits, about which we advise customers on our website. For example, space restrictions and operational requirements may make carriage in the cabin impossible. 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.)”

Nevertheless, the case used was a MONO M80, one they switched to after their custom hardshell case was punctured and destroyed along with another bozouki in 2018. “The MONO cases were allowed to go through the gate check process, with the possibility of being a carry on and were likely to be handled with more care this way,” the band added, noting MONO Cases are used throughout the industry by many touring artists.

Rum Ragged actually used this same case on five other airlines throughout the UK and EU over the last four months. All airlines gate checked the MONO case and placed the guitar under with baggage. No damage was ever reported.

The award-winning traditional/folk group was short-listed for a Juno in 2021 for their album, The Thing About Fish. Originally consisting of accordionist Aaron Collis and singer/guitarist Mark Manning, the band released its self-titled debut album in 2016. They followed up with the album The Hard Times and a holiday-themed album titled Rum Ragged at Christmas in 2018, with new supporting members Anthony Chafe on bodhran and Michael Boone on bass and banjo. Chafe and Boone were replaced by fiddler Colin Grant and multi-instrumentalist Zack Nash in early 2019.