Carry-on luggage struggles: don't come between a trumpeter and his trumpet

A Trumpet, a Struggle, and a Musician’s Broken Arm – by DOREEN CARVAJAL

PARIS — As international authorities strive to harmonize a myriad of rules for carry-on flight luggage, a Russian-American jazz musician is nursing a broken arm he said he suffered in a struggle with French airport police over his right to board with a prized trumpet.

The musician, Valery Ponomarev, 63, a former member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, was preparing to board an Air India flight on Sept. 9 from Paris to New York City, where he lives, when a routine airport ritual erupted into a fierce dispute over his 1961 Connstellation trumpet.

“If you’ve ever played a musical instrument, then you should know how strong the bond is between the musician and the instrument,” Mr. Ponomarev said. “You wouldn’t give your baby away to anybody, and so you wouldn’t give away your horn.”

In his case, the ties were so powerful that he simply would not let go of his trumpet case, which also contained a fluegelhorn.

But the authorities were not sympathetic and maintain that the trumpeter was uncooperative with airport and airline officials in a time of heightened security.

According to Mr. Ponomarev, when he arrived late to board an evening flight, a flustered Air India employee retrieved his trumpet from a luggage belt at a security checkpoint without explanation to place it in the plane’s hold.

Mr. Ponomarev protested vigorously, he said, because he had hand-carried the instrument on an earlier connecting flight and also had noticed that another passenger was carrying aboard a sitar. His angry complaints attracted the notice of an Air India supervisor, who summoned the police.

Four officers came running to take his trumpet case, but Mr. Ponomarev refused to give it to them, and one of them subdued him by wrenching his arm behind his back and, according to the musician, breaking it.

The airport authorities and the police confirm that the episode took place as Mr. Ponomarev was boarding the flight at Charles de Gaulle airport. But in the view of the police, the musician bears responsibility for his injury.

“The officers tried to subdue him, and you can say that he hurt himself by rebelling,” said a spokesman for the airport police.

H. Rana, the regional manager for Air India’s Paris office, said airline employees called the police because Mr. Ponomarev insisted on carrying his music case on board. She said that Air India requires the check-in of large instruments.

In Europe, carry-on luggage rules vary among airlines. Last week, the European Commission moved to standardize the rules with new regulations taking effect next spring that restrict the amount of liquids carried aboard for personal use and limit carry-on luggage size. But there may be exemptions for some cameras and musical instruments.

The rule change comes too late for Mr. Ponomarev, who said that after his arm was broken he was held in detention without treatment for six hours and was not allowed to make any calls.

Ultimately, he was taken to a hospital where one of the doctors loaned him a cellphone to contact the United States Embassy.

After surgery, Mr. Ponomarev returned on September 13 to the United States on another Air India flight. With a metal plate holding the bones of his left arm together, Mr. Ponomarev said the break had an immediate effect on his career: He was forced to cancel a musical engagement and limit his daily practice because it is too painful to hold the trumpet with a weakened arm.

By late September, though, he decided to participate in a long-scheduled jazz concert in Russia, where he was born, although he has lived in the United States since 1973. The announcer, he said, explained to the audience that Mr. Ponomarev was playing despite a struggle with the French police.

“I think the audience thought that he was joking,” Mr. Ponomarev said, but he still took the microphone to correct the announcer: “They didn’t win the battle. They broke my arm. But the horn is still with me.”