TSA: Agents Never Strip-Searched Elderly Passengers

The Transportation Security Administration has denied that three elderly women – including a Long Beach resident – were strip-searched at John F. Kenney International Airport in November, yet admitted that its agents erred in standard operating procedures.

On behalf of the TSA, the Department on Homeland Security sent letters to advocates for the women that claimed the airline passengers weren’t asked to remove any clothing, but apologized for their employees’ actions, according to News 12.

Bob Sherman, a Plainview man whose 89-year-old mother, Ruth Sherman, was among the women that filed complaints, called the letter insincere:   

“It took them from November until January to realize, oops, it says here we should have done it differently?” 

Lenore Zimmerman, 85, of Long Beach said she was boarding a plane to Florida at the JetBlue terminal at JFK when TSA agents took her into a private room and had her raise her blouse and remove her undergarments after she refused a body scan, fearing the scanner might interfere with her defibrillator, during the busy Thanksgiving travel season.

In December, Senator Charles Schumer and State Senator Michael Gianaris sent a letter to Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole that included the women’s accusations lodged against the TSA, and called for a trained passenger advocate to be present during airport screenings to “help strike the right balance between security and protecting vulnerable travelers."

TSA Assistant Secretary Betsy Markey responded to the politicians’ letter, saying that an investigation showed TSA employees had put a back brace worn by Zimmerman through an X-ray machine, and did visually inspected her colostomy bag, both of which are not standard operating procedures, but never asked the women to remove any clothing, according to Reuters.