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84-year-old says she was strip searched at JFK

Dec. 5, 2011 - 10:17 By

NEW YORK (AP) — An 84-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.

Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one two-and-a-half hours later, she said.

"I'm hunched over. I'm in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds and I'm going to be 85 in February. Do I look like a terrorist?," she said from her winter home at seniors community in Coconut Creek, Fla. "This was the worst experience."

But the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Saturday no strip search was conducted.

"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case," the statement read.

Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1 p.m. flight Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on JetBlue, she said. She arrived to the ticket counter around 12:20 p.m. and headed for security in a wheelchair, her small, metal walker in her lap.

She's been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. "I worry about my heart, so I don't want to go through those things," she said referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.

As a result, she said she was taken into the private screening room by one agent and made to strip.

A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed proper procedures were followed, Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement.

"Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes," the statement read. "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance."

The private screening was not recorded.

Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, N.Y., said she banged her shin during the process and it bled "like a pig," partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected. There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.

"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.

Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he'd like to see someone fired, and screeners re-trained after his mother's ordeal.

"My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative," he said Saturday. "I don't understand how this happened."

He said she's had an increasingly difficult time traveling, especially since her husband died a few years ago. She has two grandchildren, and her older son, a doctor, died in 2007.

Meanwhile, Lenore Zimmerman said she was healing, planned to go to the grocery store on Saturday and take it easy. Weather was about 76 and sunny, and she's not headed back to an airport until April when she returns to New York.

"Thank goodness," she said. "It will give me some time to brace myself for the return flight."

 

<한글기사>

美공항서 85세노파 '알몸검색 당했다' 분통

올해 85세의 미국인 노파가 뉴욕 존 F. 케네디공항에서 스캐너 검색대 통과 대신 몸수색을 요청했다가 알몸검색을 받는 모욕을 당했다고 주장해 논란이 일고 있다.

지난달 28일 플로리다행 비행기를 타기 위해 케네디공항에 간 이 노파는 "심장 박동을 정상화하는데 쓰는 제세동기에 장애가 발생할 것을 염려해 스캐너 검색대 통과를 포기했더니 보안요원이 별도방으로 데려가 바지와 다른 옷들을 벗겼다"고 주장했다.

그녀는 이 때문에 예약한 항공편을 놓쳤고 두시간 반이 지나서야 다른 비행기를 탈 수 있었다고 밝혔다.

이 노파는 "나는 휠체어를 타고 있는데다 몸무게가 50㎏도 안되는데 테러리스트로 보이냐"며 분통을 터뜨렸다.

미 연방 교통안전청(TSA)은 "우리 보안 규정에 알몸검색은 없으며 이번에도  실시하지 않았다"며 노파의 주장을 반박했다.

TSA 관계자는 "개별 몸수색은 승객의 요청에 의해 이뤄지며 11분 가량 진행된다 "면서 "TSA의 검색 과정은 모든 승객을 품위있게 다루도록 설계됐으며 공항내 CCTV 화면을 확인한 결과 이번 검색도 적절하게 이뤄졌다"고 말했다.

미국에서는 지난 2009년 성탄절에 발생한 여객기 폭탄테러 미수 사건 이후 공항마다 알몸투시기로 불리는 전신스캐너가 확산돼 왔다.

그러나 전신스캐너는 신체의 은밀한 부분까지 드러나고 엑스선이 건강에 해로워이를 원하지 않는 승객과 보안당국 사이에 몸수색의 수위를 둘러싼 시비가 빈발하고 있다.