A woman says Transportation Security Administration officials detained and searched her 95-year-old cancer-stricken mother -- even making her remove her disposable diaper -- at an airport in northwest Florida.
According the Northwest Florida Daily News, Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security over the incident, which occurred at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport two weekends ago as her mother was preparing to fly home to Michigan to be with family as she battles leukemia.
“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber told the newspaper. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”
Weber said her mother entered the airport security checkpoint in a wheelchair because she was not stable enough to walk.
Wheelchairs can trigger alarms, which require special prodecures, the TSA spokeswoman, Sari Koshetz, said.
“During any part of the process, if there is an alarm, then we have to resolve that alarm,” she said.
Weber said her mother was taken into a partitioned area and patted down and then taken to another room where security officials conducted a more extensive search.
She said security personnel told her they would need her mother to remove her diaper because it was hindering their search.
TSA spokesman Jonathan Allen dispute part of Weber's account.
“While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner. We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally, according to proper procedure and did not require this passenger to remove an adult diaper."
Weber told the Daily News that after filing a complaint, a Homeland Security official told her that personnel had followed procedures properly.
“Then I thought, if you’re just following rules and regulations, then the rules and regulations need to be changed,” she told the newspaper.
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