This undated photo provided by Jean Weber shows her mother, Lena Reppert. The gravely ill 95-year-old woman had to remove her wet diaper at an airport so that she could be patted down by security screeners and nearly missed her flight, her daughter said Monday. (AP-Yonhap News)
DESTIN, Fla. (AP) – A gravely ill 95-year-old woman had to remove her wet diaper at an airport so that she could be patted down by security screeners and nearly missed her flight, her daughter said Monday.
During the pat-down, Transportation Security Administration inspectors found a mass on Lena Reppert's upper thigh, her daughter Jean Weber said. The mass was a hard spot on the diaper that had become heavy and concentrated in that place because it was wet. Reppert, who is in a wheelchair, had to be patted down because she couldn't go through a scanning machine, and the TSA agents said they could not search the diaper while she was still wearing it, Weber said.
Reppert couldn't board a June 18 flight from Northwest Florida Regional Airport in Fort Walton Beach to Detroit until she was cleared by security, Weber said. Reppert, who has leukemia and had been living in the Florida Panhandle, was returning to her native Hastings, Mich., where she wants to be buried.
Weber, a waitress, said she was told the diaper would have to be removed so the agents could finish their pat-down. They had not packed any extra diapers in their carry-on because her mother has never needed backups before.
"She had to remove them," Weber said. "She would not be cleared with those Depends on."
TSA officials said the agency's inspectors did nothing wrong and followed proper procedure. Spokesman Nick Kimball also said the officers did not force Reppert to remove the diaper.
"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," Kimball said.
Officials offered to pull their luggage off the plane so Reppert could change into a clean diaper, but Weber said she feared her mother, a retired nurse, would miss her flight.
"She is frail. I had arranged for these times because it's the time she was the strongest every day," Weber said. "I just did not want to put her through some kind of wait."
However, Weber said the agents would not allow her to remove the diaper in the screening room — so she had to take her mother to a restroom outside the security area, and then wait in line to be screened again. The second time, Weber said she triggered an alarm herself because she was upset and crying.
They tested her purse for chemicals while her mother finished her pat-down in private, she said. By then, she had lost her pass allowing her to escort her mother to her gate and asked airport workers to take the woman.
"It was a traumatic moment for me because I know my mother is very ill and hopefully I can get up to see her before anything happens," Weber said.
TSA has tightened security after a Nigerian man was charged with trying to ignite explosives he had hidden in his underwear on a flight to Detroit from Europe on Christmas Day 2009.
However, the full-body scans and pat-downs have been criticized by travelers and been the brunt of jokes on "Saturday Night Live."
Earlier this year, for example, the agency was criticized for patting down a 6-year-old girl at the New Orleans airport. Last week, TSA officials said that security workers would now be told to make repeated attempts to screen young children without resorting to the pat-downs.
95세 할머니 기저귀 벗긴 공항
95세의 노인이 공항 보안검사 때문에 기저귀를 벗어야 하만 했던 상황이 발생했다.
미국 교통안전국 (TSA) 직원은 95세 여성을 몸 수색하던 중 승객의 허벅지 위쪽에서 어떤 물체를 발견했다.
그리고 기저귀를 차고 있는 한 그 부분을 수색할 수 없어서 이 노인에게 기저귀를 제거하라고 요구했다.
그 결과 이 노인은 플로리다에서 디트로이트로 가는 비행기를 제시간에 탈 수 없었다. 백혈병을 앓고 있는 이 노인은 플로리다에 살고 있었고 자신이 죽은 뒤 묻히고 싶은 고향으로 되돌아 가려고 하던 중이었다.
함께 동행하던 딸의 말에 따르면 교통안전국 직원은 몸수색을 위해 기저귀를 제거해야 한다고 말했고, 평소 여분의 기저귀가 필요 없던 어머니 때문에 이날 자신은 여분의 기저귀를 들고 오지 않았다고 말했다.
한편 교통안전국은 이날 직원은 잘못한 것이 없으며 보안검사의 적절한 단계를 따른 것뿐이라고 말했다. 또한 노인에게 기저귀를 제거하도록 강요한 적이 없다고 말했다고 반박했다.
직원들은 비행기에 실은 짐에서 새 기저귀를 꺼내 갈아입을 수 있게 했으나 딸은 이런 일 때문에 비행기를 놓치게 될까봐 걱정했다고 말했다.
딸은 이날 비행기 일정을 잡게 된 것도 어머니의 건강상태가 가장 좋은 날로 잡은 것이라며 어머니를 다시 기다리게 하고 싶지 않았다고 말했다.
미 교통안전국은 2009년 크리스마스날 한 나이지라아 남성이 속옷 속에 숨겨놓은 폭탄을 터뜨리려는 시도를 한 이후 공항 검색을 강화해왔다.
그러나 그 이후로 교통안전국은 6세 여아를 몸수색하는 등 부적절한 몸수색으로 비난을 받아왔다.