diff --git a/pywb/warc/recordloader.py b/pywb/warc/recordloader.py
index 90af9496..64c4181f 100644
--- a/pywb/warc/recordloader.py
+++ b/pywb/warc/recordloader.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from pywb.utils.statusandheaders import StatusAndHeadersParserException
 from pywb.utils.limitreader import LimitReader
 from pywb.utils.loaders import to_native_str
 
-from pywb.utils.wbexception import WbException
+#from pywb.utils.wbexception import WbException
 from pywb.utils.timeutils import timestamp_to_iso_date
 
 from six.moves import zip
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ class ArcWarcRecord(object):
 
 
 #=================================================================
-class ArchiveLoadFailed(WbException):
+class ArchiveLoadFailed(Exception):
     def __init__(self, reason, filename=''):
         if filename:
             msg = filename + ': ' + str(reason)
@@ -35,9 +35,7 @@ class ArchiveLoadFailed(WbException):
             msg = str(reason)
 
         super(ArchiveLoadFailed, self).__init__(msg)
-
-    def status(self):
-        return '503 Service Unavailable'
+        self.msg = msg
 
 
 #=================================================================
diff --git a/pywb/webagg/app.py b/pywb/webagg/app.py
index 90aadc5f..c2368c57 100644
--- a/pywb/webagg/app.py
+++ b/pywb/webagg/app.py
@@ -107,7 +107,11 @@ class ResAggApp(object):
             if self.debug:
                 traceback.print_exc()
 
-            status = last_exc.status()
+            if not hasattr(last_exc, 'status'):
+                status = '503 Archive Not Available'
+            else:
+                status = last_exc.status()
+
             message = last_exc.msg
 
         res = {'message': message}
diff --git a/pywb/webagg/handlers.py b/pywb/webagg/handlers.py
index 707a9c89..50a4362f 100644
--- a/pywb/webagg/handlers.py
+++ b/pywb/webagg/handlers.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ from pywb.webagg.responseloader import  WARCPathLoader, LiveWebLoader, VideoLoad
 from pywb.webagg.utils import MementoUtils
 from pywb.utils.wbexception import BadRequestException, WbException
 from pywb.utils.wbexception import NotFoundException
+from pywb.warc.recordloader import ArchiveLoadFailed
 
 from pywb.cdx.query import CDXQuery
 from pywb.cdx.cdxdomainspecific import load_domain_specific_cdx_rules
@@ -151,7 +152,7 @@ class ResourceHandler(IndexHandler):
                     out_headers, resp = loader(cdx, params)
                     if resp is not None:
                         return out_headers, resp, errs
-                except WbException as e:
+                except (WbException, ArchiveLoadFailed) as e:
                     last_exc = e
                     errs[str(loader)] = str(e)