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The Transportation Security Administration "cannot exempt any group from screening because we know from intelligence that there are terrorists out there that would then exploit that vulnerability," TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz told the Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach.
Jean Weber, of Destin, Fla., told the newspaper the humiliation her 95-year-old mother went through was "something I couldn't imagine happening on American soil."
She filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, and plans to file other complaints this week, she said.
Her mother, in the final stages of leukemia and wanting to fly to Michigan to be with family, was stopped in her wheelchair at Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport's security checkpoint June 18, Weber said.
During the screening, TSA agents asked her to remove her adult diaper so they could complete a patdown search because they said the diaper was soiled and impeding the search, Weber told the newspaper.
"Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this," she said.
Weber wheeled her mother into a bathroom, removed her diaper and returned. The elderly woman did not have a clean replacement diaper with her, Weber said.
Agents let her mother go after 45 minutes, Weber said, adding her mother is now "fine."
The TSA said Sunday, "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."
But that's not good enough for Weber.
If the TSA agents are "just following rules and regulations, then the rules and regulations need to be changed," she told the newspaper.
"I'm not one to make waves," she said, "but dadgummit, this is wrong. People need to know. Next time it could be you."
that believes a 95 year old woman in a wheelchair is a threat to national security has totally lost their mind. What's next? An anal cavity search of your dog or cat? As Judy Tanuda would say,"Could happen"....