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Hope this is only an aberration and not of things to come with the full body scanners.Adelaide airport ‘forced old lady out of wheelchair’
Peter Needham
An 89-year-old wheelchair-bound arthritis sufferer was allegedly made to walk unaided by Adelaide Airport security staff, hurting herself.
The woman’s family is furious over the matter, Adelaide’s Sunday Mail reported.
Thomasine Davies was allegedly asked to take off her shoes and abandon her wheelchair to pass through a metal detector. She sustained a cut during the process which was bandaged by airport staff. The wound later became infected and cost Davies AUD100 for treatment, the report said.
Davies, who suffers from crippling arthritis, lives in New Zealand and flies frequently to Adelaide and Melbourne. She says she has never before been asked to leave her wheelchair to pass through security screening.
Davies told the paper that after she passed through the gate, a security worker noticed blood. A man came and dressed the wound “but I could have done a better job myself”.
Her daughter has spoken out, saying the security staff should be “a bit less gung-ho” and show more consideration and compassion when dealing with infirm travellers.
The airport is investigating, telling passengers in the meantime that it wants to ensure everyone is treated in a sensitive and friendly manner, including those requiring mobility assistance.
Such cases are more common in the USA, which deals with a far greater number of air travellers. There, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) frequently cops flak for alleged heavy-handedness. It is currently in hot water after an agent reportedly reduced a 12-year-old girl in a wheelchair to tears by separating her from her mother for nearly an hour.
It seems a TSA officer found bomb residue on the girl’s hands but it turned out to be a “false positive”.
Global Travel Media
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