Another TSA Outrage: 95 Year-Old Women With Cancer Now A National Security Threat

After reading through the details of this story, one can only wonder why the people involved were thinking:

Lena Reppert, a native of Barry County, was flying from Florida to move home to the Hastings area, where she’s living with relatives who are caring for her, said her daughter, Jean Weber of Destin, Fla.

Instead of a getting a special goodbye moment with her cancer-stricken mother, Weber said the June 18 security check turned in a tearful ordeal because of the lengthy pat down by Transportation Security Administration agents.

“She was subjected to 45 minutes of searching, and I didn’t think that should happen,” Weber said this morning from her home in Destin.

She said TSA agents told her she had to remove her mother’s adult diaper because they couldn’t complete the screening. She said her mother has chronic lymphocytic leukemia and her health has declined significantly in the last year.

When Weber later complained to TSA, supervisors told her security procedures were followed properly and respectfully.

(…)

The TSA’s response to Weber’s complaint: “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 and according to proper procedure.”

Of course you think they did, that’s the problem.

Here’s video from CNN:

FILED UNDER: National Security, Terrorism, US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Bleev K says:

    Land of the free, home of the brave.

  2. APL says:

    What will happen when a person in this
    kind of condition and of great age dies due to
    stress causing a heart attack or stroke.

    Will the TSA still state their officers acted professionally?

    I fly quite a bit, and our TSA agents are not friendly or
    professional. The don’t smile. and bark orders most
    of the time.

    I have been treated much better going thru scans and
    searches in all of the countries outside the U,S., and
    that includes China, Vietnam, Turkey. and Eastern Europe.

    It seem like our TSA is on a power trip or something.

  3. Nicole says:

    I had a similar experience with my grandmother before she passed away from cancer in 2002. It may not have been 45 minutes, but it was significantly longer than average and intrusive. She had declined very suddenly, so we were flying her to my parents’ house so they could take care of her until she died. So she was clearly flying on a one-way ticket. To TSA, that made her suspect, even though it was obvious to anyone that she was a woman very near death and there would be no need for a return ticket for her. As it happened she passed away the very next day. It’s shameful that they can’t even use some common sense to give a dying woman some dignity.

  4. mattb says:

    The article doesn’t mention which airport this happened at — though if I’m reading it right I suspect it’s somewhere in Florida. I can’t help but wonder how big an airport it was.

    I fly a few times a year on business — the last few times have been out of a small (one terminal) airport in rural western/central NY. And they have had, by far, the WORST screening I’ve ever been through. With a single checkpoint, it can take upwards of 45 minutes to get to a morning flight whose gate I can see from the lobby of an airport – less than 100 yards away).

    They’ve twice gone through by hand a travel toiletries bag that has been through checks at a number of major and mid-sized airports without a problem and thrown out multiple items that were *just* over the limit. And I’ve seen more pat downs of people in wheelchairs there than at any other airport.

    I don’t know if it’s just that those officers are bored or what, but it’s security theater of the highest degree.

  5. Franklin says:

    Waiting for someone to defend this … you can start by providing some statistics about how many actual terrorist threats have been prevented by the TSA. I have a guess for that number, you might say it’s a very round number.

  6. matt says:

    We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure.”

    Standard operating procedure for law enforcement..

  7. Franklin says:

    We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure.”

    So the fuck what when your procedures are so ignorant of common sense.

  8. George Meredith MD says:

    Putting Those TSA Pat Downs in Perspective

    Remembering 911. Consider:

    • Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis

    • Reliable sources have found that the terrorists were financed, in part, by Sultan bin Abdul Aziz and other members of the Saudi Royal Family

    • There had been long term personal, as well as, financial ties between the Bush and (Saudi) bin Laden families

    • ”The Phantom Flight from Florida.” With US airspace still closed, Bush made an exception and allowed a number of chartered jets with members of the bin Laden family to leave Tampa, New Orleans, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, Kentucky and elsewhere bound for Saudi Arabia

    • When confronted with the FBI evidence that these (Saudis) were receiving 757 and 767 flight simulator training in Phoenix, Vero Beach and Minneapolis and were planning to crash these fuel laden commercial aircraft into key US buildings…when confronted with this information, George W Bush shut down all three FBI investigations with the following quote:

    “The Saudis are our friends, they would never do anything like that to us!”

    Why, Bush could not even be bothered to pick up the phone and let the airlines know about these three FBI investigations!

    Considering that the only significant use of our own airlines by terrorists against us ….ever…..considering this and the above mentioned stupid ass response by our, then, self proclaimed president, George W Bush….considering this, don’t you think that Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder and Barry Obumma are, today, going a bit overboard with these TSA pat downs?

    George Meredith MD
    Virginia Beach

  9. Stephanie Hasiak says:

    Waiting for someone to defend this … you can start by providing some statistics about how many actual terrorist threats have been prevented by the TSA. I have a guess for that number, you might say it’s a very round number.
    YEAH AND HOW MANY WHERE THE RESULTS OF OLD PEOPLE IN WHEEL CHAIRS . YOU CAN DEFEND THE TSA ALL YOU WANT, BUT YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID!!!! WE NEED TO GET SOME SMART PEOPLE THAT HAS A BRAIN IN THERE HEAD NOT UP THERE BUTTS