Airport search complaints prompt calls for on-site advocates

Two New York politicians urged the Transportation Security Administration on Sunday to provide passenger advocates on site at airport  moncler parkas screenings after four elderly women complained of intrusive searches by security agents in recent months.

Senator Charles Schumer and State Senator Michael Gianaris told Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole in a letter that an on-site passenger advocate would help strike the right balance between security and protecting vulnerable travelers.

The call came after several elderly women came forward in the busy travel weeks around Thanksgiving to complain they were "strip searched by TSA agents moncler jackets", including three at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, the letter said.

He said the TSA was in the process of establishing a toll-free phone number dedicated to travelers who may require assistance during screening and which could be called to "get guidance and information about screening."

Schumer and Gianaris asked instead for a member of the screening crew to be trained as a passenger advocate who could intervene as problems arose. They also asked for an investigation into the women's complaints moncler vest, which were detailed in the letter.

In one case, the letter said, Lenore Zimmerman, 85, of Long Beach, New York, said TSA agents took her into a private room in late November to remove her back brace for screening after she decided against going through a scanning machine because of her heart defibrillator.

She was "escorted to another room where two female agents made her lower her pants for an inspection. Sherman raised concerns that the agents would disrupt her colostomy bag, causing pain and potential damage," the letter said.

A third woman, Linda Kallish, of Boynton, Florida, said that after she revealed she was a diabetic with an insulin pump in her leg, she was escorted to a separate room where she was told to remove her pants so the agents could check the pump moncler coats, the letter said, without saying when that incident took place.

Last June, the daughter of Lena Reppert, 95, reported that TSA agents would not let her mother board a flight from Fort Walton Beach, Florida moncler outlet, to Detroit because her incontinence pad set off alarms, the letter said. 

The TSA blamed some of the problems on "a bit of miscommunication" and noted that JFK officers were receiving refresher training on "how to respectfully and safely screen passengers with disabilities or medical conditions."