American Airlines Issues Mea Culpa for Booting Cellist From Flight

The musician says he was left “mortified” after being forced from his flight in front of a plane full of other passengers, all because crew members considered his instrument a “risk” to the aircraft.

John Kaboff was understandably concerned about protecting his extraordinarily valuable cello during a recent trip from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD). As it turns out, an American Airlines crew was far more concerned about the threat potentially posed by his stringed instrument.

Kaboff told reporters that although he had purchased a seat for his oversized musical instrument, the crew told him that he would not be allowed to travel on the flight. Kaboff said that he had flown with his cello on American Airlines countless times before, including earlier this month, without incident. This time, however, the founder of the Kaboff Cello School in Virginia says that he learned he would not be allowed to fly with his instrument after he had already taken his seat on the plane.

“Either I could voluntarily leave or I could be removed from the airplane,” Kaboff recounted being told by a crew member to ABC Washington, DC affiliate WJLA. “I was mortified to have to be removed from a flight, like I just committed a crime.”

Kaboff said that a gate had previously cleared him and his prized cello to board the flight. He also reports that after he was kicked off the flight, the ground agent questioned the crew’s decision to remove him. “The ground personnel and the gate agent said that someone’s making an error with this and apologized on behalf of the airline,” Kaboff told ABC News.

This is only the latest in a long-running string of instances in which airlines have had trouble formulating a consistent policy on cellists traveling with sometimes priceless instruments. WestJet, twice in the last few years, earned scorn from the music lovers after charging cellists for extra seats for instruments before deciding both not to let the instruments travel, but also to decline to refund the original ticket price. In 2016, a cellist from the UK was barred from boarding a flight to the US after British Airways agents mistakenly believed that her cello would need a visa to enter the country.

Kaboff’s ordeal, fortunately, had something of a happy ending.

“We’re reviewing the issue internally and apologize to Mr. Kaboff for the inconvenience he experienced yesterday.” airline officials said in a statement. “Mr. Kaboff and his musical instrument were accommodated on the next flight to Chicago and our customer relations team has reached out to him directly.”

American Airlines officials said that they also offered a refund and undisclosed vouchers to the mistreated music instructor.

[Photo: Shutterstock]