Outrage after TSA's 'disgusting' body search on a 96-year-old woman. / ViralHog
Airport security staff in the US have been slammed after they subjected a 96-year-old woman in a wheelchair to an extensive body search.
In a video posted to Facebook, the frail grandmother was put through a five-minute-long security search that her daughter deemed "invasive" and "infuriating".
"I'm so angry.I could spit nails!!! Look what they did to Mother! 96 years old and subjected to this [sic]!" Jeanne Clarkson posted to Facebook.
During the ordeal, the female official from Transportation Security Administration (TSA) asks the frail woman to remove her jacket before performing a lengthy "pat-down".
Airport staff have been slammed for extensively body searching a 96-year-old woman in a wheelchair. Photo / Jeanne Clarkson
The 96-year-old was also told to raise her arms and shift side to side before leaning forward so they could search her wheelchair.
Another officer tried to block Clarkson from filming her mother's ordeal at Washington-Dulles Airport last week.
Clarkson's rage then boiled over, shouting at the security team saying "Oh, for God's sakes, what in hell do you think she's gonna do, set off a shoe bomb?"
The 96-year-old received a pat-down for more than five minutes. Photo / Jeanne Clarkson
One man in the video could be heard shouting, "This is uncalled for. Yeah, a 96-year-old terrorist."
According to Clarkson, her party of three were all in wheelchairs but only her 96-year-old mother was given a body search.
The video, which was posted to Facebook, has sparked mass outrage after receiving more than 8 million views.
"My 81-year-old husband went thru the same thing. Very painful because they made him stand, which he can't do," one person said.
"That poor woman looks so fragile. I'm sure she must be carrying weapons in her sensible footwear and drugs under her painful left shoulder. I'm sure there had to be directions on how to make nuclear bombs in her underpants because she was digging in there like no tomorrow. Pathetic," another wrote.
"This is awful, she searched the same areas several times, talk about feeling invaded."
The TSA, an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security, was established after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
