Musician banned from flying to gig due to simple mistake on UK passport
dailystar.co.ukBirmingham Airport.The celebrated artist made a mistake plenty of us could fall foul of – and claims to have lost out on thousands because of it.Soweto Kinch, 44, an award-winning saxophonist, was due to play with his band The Black Peril at the acclaimed Jamboree Jazz club on Wednesday, September 7. READ MORE: Woman's warning to flyers as she's barred from flight due to passport mistake But, the group sadly had to cancel the event as they were told at BHX that Soweto’s passport was too damaged for him to be allowed to board.The Brit was gobsmacked by the change as he claims he flew into the UK just days before using the same passport.Now, Soweto says that his band lost around £6,000 in income, flight costs and accommodation pay outs. "This has stopped me from earning thousands of pounds," Soweto told BirminghamLive. "The gig had to be called off which caused all sorts of disappointment. "It was one of our most special gigs of the year and to have it ruined on a whim is very hard to take. "It's not only the financial hit from not being able to perform, but the cost of our flights, the money spent on logistics and everything else – so to not be allowed to fly was really galling."Soweto was trying to check his luggage when the staff member “disappeared” with his passport for “about 20 minutes”.He said: "They came back and said they had noticed my passport was damaged and because of that I couldn't fly.
Bear in mind I had flown into the country on this passport two days prior.“The damage they were referring to was a rip on the picture page but it wasn't going through the picture itself or any of the wording on the page."I was pretty upset, as anyone in that position would be.
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