“If airlines can damage professional-grade instruments and then refuse to take responsibility, it puts every traveling musician at risk”: Emily Wolfe’s signature guitar smashed inside hardcase during flight – airline taking no responsibility
Phil Weller
created: Aug. 11, 2025, 12:34 p.m. | updated: Aug. 17, 2025, 8:27 a.m.
Blues rock ace Emily Wolfe has taken to Instagram after her signature guitar was decapitated during a Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas, revealing that the firm is taking no responsibility for the damage.
“Yesterday I flew with my Epiphone White Wolfe on Southwest Air to Vegas,” she says in an Instagram post.
“I followed every guideline for traveling with an instrument: hard-shell flight case, checked in properly, fragile stickers, and paid the new bag fees.
“My last trip to Vegas, Southwest Airlines, same deal: Les Paul, Broken headstock,” he writes in the comments.
“Southwest Airlines, you can set a better example by doing the right thing.
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