Posted on 06/26/2011 3:39:10 AM PDT by LibWhacker
A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend.
Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.
Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.
“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said Friday. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”
Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration in Miami, said she could not comment on specific cases to protect the privacy of those involved.
“The TSA works with passengers to resolve any security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner,” she said.
Weber’s mother entered the airport’s security checkpoint in a wheelchair because she was not stable enough to walk through, Weber said.
Wheelchairs trigger certain protocols, including pat-downs and possible swabbing for explosives, Koshetz said.
“During any part of the process, if there is an alarm, then we have to resolve that alarm,” she said.
Weber said she did not know whether her mother had triggered an alarm during the 45 minutes they were detained.
She said her mother was first pulled aside into a glass-partitioned area and patted down. Then she was taken to another room to protect her privacy during a more extensive search, Weber said.
Weber said she sat outside the room during the search.
She said security personnel then came out and told her they would need for her mother to remove her Depends diaper because it was soiled and was impeding their search.
Weber wheeled her mother into a bathroom, removed her diaper and returned. Her mother did not have another clean diaper with her, Weber said.
Weber said she wished there were less invasive search methods for an elderly person who is unable to walk through security gates.
“I don’t understand why they have to put them through that kind of procedure,” she said.
Koshetz said the procedures are the same for everyone to ensure national security.
“TSA cannot exempt any group from screening because we know from intelligence that there are terrorists out there that would then exploit that vulnerability,” she said.
Weber filed a complaint through Northwest Florida Regional’s website. She said she received a response from a Homeland Security representative at the airport on Tuesday and spoke to that person on the phone Wednesday.
The representative told her that personnel had followed procedures during the search, Weber said.
“Then I thought, if you’re just following rules and regulations, then the rules and regulations need to be changed,” she said.
Weber said she plans to file additional complaints next week.
“I’m not one to make waves, but dadgummit, this is wrong. People need to know. Next time it could be you.”
BINGO! We have a winner!
If more people would just say no, and make a strong statement about this. This would stop. Next will be cavity searches for your 6 year old daughters. They are already putting their hands down 5 year old’s pants.
Is there anybody on this thread that thinks we are safer from terrorist attacks because the TSA took off some old lady’s Depends? This is not security its tyranny. Every state should kick the TSA out of their airports.
Weber wheeled her mother into a bathroom, removed her diaper and returned. Her mother did not have another clean diaper with her, Weber said.
She was beginning her trip from FL to MI, with a soiled diaper, and no clean one to change into. How long was she sitting in a soiled diaper before TSA asked her daughter to remove it? This may explain why the daughter is the one filing the complaint.
And people wonder why I drive everywhere I can when I have to travel (Unless it’s military related)
Nope. it’s all one very expensive dog and pony show.
I have not, and will not, set foot on a airplane as long as the TSA is in charge of (in)security.
I remember, at the beginning of my military career, flying was still a pleasant experience.
“Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search”
Janetalia Incompetano gets turned on.
We made our last flight Oct 2010 just a couple of weeks before the naked body scanners and the patdowns started in Atlanta. My fiancee’ got selected for a random patdown. Apparently they were testing at that time to see how much people would put up with. My fiancee’ almost clocked the TSA guy. He had an epiphany at the last minute and stepped back and saved himself a good Alabama azz kicking. We are not flying again until the TSA is gone. If we have to fly we will go on Executive Jet.
Flying out of larger airports is painful, and the sadistic TSA people enjoy inflicting the pain, whether physical or emotional.
In ‘08, I was going see my ill father in Buffalo. On the shuttle ride to LAX, I received the call that he had died. During security check, I was crying and was ordered to stop or else I’d be arrested. I said that my father had died less than an hour ago. Response was that I’d still be arrested if I didn’t stop crying.
Because of an artificial hip, I ALWAYS beep going through the scanner, so am wanded and patted every time I fly. Once I waited for 30 minutes in the stanchion for an agent to wand me, completely disconnected from everything personal — purse, cell phone, luggage, etc.
I despise flying, but must do it sometimes.
All of this makes me sick. Our candidate should include in his/her platform Israeli style question profiling for air travelers, focus on Muslims and people with ties to our enemies. Drop this rape of the kids and elderly!!
And people, if you look or are Mislom or middle eastern, Deal With It! If blonde chicks were blowing up planes I would deal with a strip search every time I flew. I would understand!
Luckily, because I was pregnant so would have to submit to the crotch pat, the last two airports I flew to did not have their x ray booths in operation. The booths were sitting there (amortizing??) but not in use those days. I fly out of an airport that doesn’t have those machines, Yet.
Florida used to have good laws against elder abuse.
These stories are killng me. You can’t be crying for your father, one hour after he passed??
This government is supposed to be by the people!! Why do we take this crap??? Can’t we get a presidential candidate with some balls to give us back our freedom??
I remain devastated about the innocents we all lost on 9/11 but this is (bleeping) Worse!! Profile for people with ties to Islam or enemy countries!
The muslims have disrupted our lives more with these things than almost any type of terror attack. We put up with the outrageous because of muslims and in turn blame it on a government that caters to them.
There will be a day of reckoning for this madness.
Absolutely no question about it. This is part of a calculated agenda to "East Germanize" the general population into submission.
"It's starts when you're always afraid, step out of line, the men come and take you away"
Little did Neil Young know that 45 years later it would be his liberal idols doing this.
...to protect the privacy of those involved...
“The TSA works with passengers...in a respectful and sensitive manner,”
Yeah, and 2+2=5, hmmm comrade? s/
How about using a little common sense and compassion you mindless government drones.
How much longer are we going to put up with this out of control FedGov and their across the board theft of our rights?
At some point we will either completely capitulate, or we will take back our freedom.
It will NEVER be "given" back to us, by anyone.
Exactly. And how does making a wheel chair bound, 95 yo woman suffering from leukemia remove her “adult diaper” in the middle of the airport in front of strangers protect her privacy?
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