'Time For Three' But No Room On Plane For Violins

At first I was like, who cares? But then I thought about it some more and realized this is really important to musicians who travel. Two members of the band Time for Three were attempting to board a US Airways flight at Charlotte Douglas International Airport yesterday when they ran into a problem regarding their instruments. The flight crew told band members Zach De Pue and Nicolas Kendall that they would not be able to bring their violins aboard the plane, saying it was against FAA regulations (that's being disputed) and instead would need to place them with the checked luggage. The musicians refused, and one of them recorded a video on his cell phone during the "standoff" (soon after posting it onto YouTube). After not boarding their original flight, they also did what is common with gripes these days, they took their complaints to social media, which reportedly helped persuade the airline to allow the band members to board a later flight with their instruments.

The little-longer-than-two-minutes YouTube video has received more than 60,000 views in less than 24 hours, along with a couple hundred comments (seemingly most siding with the musicians).

A friend of mine is a DJ, and I remember talking to him one time about how he travels around the country for parties and shows he's booked for. He said he carries his DJ equipment, primarily a laptop and digital turntables, on board the plane because not only is this valuable cargo, but if it would happen to get misplaced, as luggage is often lost or delayed with flights, it would jeopardize his ability to perform at his scheduled event. And I'm sure that's why the violinists wanted to carry their instruments on board their plane departing Charlotte. I do think they were acting a little like D-bags in the video though. The pilot and flight crew were simply doing their jobs, even if there's some inconsistency in the enforcement of the rules.

Time for Three posted this photo on Instagram of them in the Charlotte airport concourse (at least there are rocking chairs), awaiting a decision to let them board a later flight.
Credit: instagram.com/timeforthree