"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.
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. One composer who travels lightly and would not himself be affected, said he is looking forward to his next tour with his musicians as being a long trip — by ship.
Article comments
1 - Bob Jones
Why don't they just change their ways and cargo it, securely, now?
We need to adapt to threats and frankly, I'd rather not die on a plane because Banjo Bob was so selfish that they allowed him and others to take items into the cabin.
2 - SFC SKI
IT isn't a banjo that is dangerous, it's the overreaction of security officials (no carry-ons means no bombs will be carried on, safety assured). Furthermore, until baggage handlers are better scrutinized, or airlines can assure travellers that no theft will take place, this does really hurt peopel who have to transport high-value items via air, and inconveniences the rest of us.
3 - Howard Dratch
Banjo Bob won't kill anyone. Musicians and artists often have souls, hearts and consciences. It is Osama and the would-be martyrs of Hizballah who live in a world without music, without art, without souls or any thought, it seems, except destruction and chaos.
Perhaps they did watch all those spy stories where C.H.A.O.S. tried to take over the world. And here they are in real life trying to hold the world hostage to their nightmares. Life imitates art yet again.
4 - Clavos
Someone pretending to be Banjo Bob might blow up an airliner, however.
5 - Howard Dratch
This subject has exploded.
Commercial aircraft represent globalism and high technology " they shrink the world and threaten cultural conservatism. The Boeing 747 was the last of the “great machines” that characterised the 20th century: it opened up air travel to the mass market. And it was so very American; big, brash and useful. But aircraft also appear vulnerable. In truth, civil aircraft are a lot more robust than people think, but the aviation industry is selling safety almost as much as it is selling transport and passengers need constant reassurance that aircraft are operating well within their technical limits.The Times of London published an evocative article by Michael Clarke, Prof. of Defence Studies at King's College entitled, "Here's Why Jihadis Just Love To Fly". He wrote, "Aircraft are a symbol of modernity and look vulnerable " the ideal target in a holy war." He goes on to say,
And then warns,
Airlines, however, will continue to be attractive targets for terrorists and the vulnerability and glamour of any machine travelling at 600mph at 30,000ft, will not diminish, whatever measures are taken at airports. The most effective way to deal with terrorism is still intelligence-led policing, and if yesterday’s operation is as significant as the security services indicate, they will have struck a good old-fashioned blow against a bad new fashionable terror technique.
Also in the Times is the piece, "Insurers Refuse To Cover IPods And Phones In Airline Luggage".
Millions of British air passengers were told last night that they will be travelling without insurance cover for valuable items such as jewellery, laptops, mobile phones and MP3 players that must now be packed in the aircraft hold.
Kiss the iPod, laptop and violin good-bye. Again, these murderous zealots are also a pain. Their failures disrupt our world.
Clavos is right as always. In Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent it is an assassin posing as a photographer who tries to murder the pre-war diplomat. Great scene. When I was working I learned that, when photographing Gov. Cuomo or Pataki, senators and Salman Rushdie; I never used the word "shoot".
6 - SFC SKI
Everything that goes through as a carry on gets X-rayed, that is why the bombers were trying to use liquid explosives and a small electric charge to detonate it. That was my point; banning carry-on luggage is an overreaction that t does not actually solve the problem, but it makes the authorities look like they are doing something, even if it's the wrong thing.