Disabled travelers have filed complaints with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, claiming the security screenings are excessive and humiliating, according to ABC News.
Records from 2012 show that the airport received 26 complaints about security checkpoint procedures, which is more than double the national average. The majority of the complaints came from disabled travelers and travelers suffering from breast cancer, who said they were made to remove prosthetics in public.
"Passengers with prostheses can be screened without removing them," the TSA states on its website. This policy conflicts with reports from multiple women who said they were asked to remove prosthetics in public. Among the people filing complaints was an 82-year-old woman.
"At her age and physical capability, she posed absolutely no risk whatsoever to anyone's safety and should not have been subjected to such invasive and [undignified] treatment," the woman's grandchild wrote in the complaint, which was obtained by the Arizona Republic.
There was also a 92-year-old man in a wheelchair that was reportedly asked to walk through a body scanner, even though he was a in a wheelchair resulting from polio as a child.
Travelers with disabilities are recommended to carry a TSA Notification Card to show their personal issues discreetly to security agents, allowing travelers to alert the agents to special needs these passengers may have. This allows the agents to screen the passengers accordingly.
"The Transportation Security Administration strives to treat every passenger with dignity and respect," a TSA representative told ABC News. "During the screening process, if an anomaly is detected, secondary screening is required to ensure the passenger does not have threat items, such as explosives concealed under clothing.
"A passenger should not be asked to remove or lift any article of clothing to reveal a sensitive body area or to remove a prosthetic," the representative continued.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
