Blutak

A Las Vegas resident died at the end of July. He was cremated: the Crematorium put his ashes into a small container which was then sealed. They provided a Certificate of Contents, and a copy of the Death Certificate.

The deceased's 83 year-old friend intended to take the box from LAS to CHA for a memorial service. He is a member of the USAirways Frequent Flier scheme. Last Friday (August 8th) when he checked-in at the USAirways First Class desk in Terminal 1 at around 09:30, the agent assured him that there would not be a problem taking the box onto the aircraft. Because of his very impaired mobility, he was taken by wheelchair to the TSA Security special lane.
Despite being shown the two Certificates, the TSA operative took the box, broke its seal and tipped the contents on to a metal table. Some of the ashes fell onto the floor. The TSAO then took a sample away for testing. He repeated this twice. He grinned at the passenger's obvious distress. A supervisor was called: he, too, thought that the situation was amusing. Both refused to give their names. The passenger (who is not able to stand for longer than about a minute) was also forced to undergo a thorough pat-down. No doubt the CCTV tapes have been over-written or "lost".
A memorial service was marred by the ashes being treated in such a cavalier fashion. An elderly passenger was humiliated. Bravo, TSA!!!

halls120

I would never make the claim that TSA has reached the bottom. they will likely continue to map out new and disgusting lows as time moves on.

FliesWay2Much

They've done it before. As a matter of fact, they are quite good at the profane (All FT threads):

http://tinyurl.com/qyom43q

http://tinyurl.com/opnngut

http://tinyurl.com/o7ysu79

Of course, according to Blogdad Bob, it's all our fault: TSA Drivel

Anything in the print media? I couldn't find anything with a quick search.

FLgrr

Things like this happen because they are allowed to abuse their power in the name of our 'safety'. But the discussion on Fox and Fiends or O'Reilly of this had been 'an attack' would have been how we need to change things because it is dramatic. Assume everyone is guilty and you will catch the bad guy is the motto here.

relangford

The person to which this happened should do more than go the media. A letter to their Congressperson (be sure to do this BEFORE the election in November) should get a response.

InkUnderNails

I'm sorry, but I do not understand your post past the first sentence. Can you please clarify? I think I might be interested in what you are trying to say.

mikeef

Without turning this into an OMNI/PR post, my impression from many years on this forum is that it is not a right/left issue. We have both liberals and conservatives here (not to mention FT's best-known Libertarian) and I've seen politicians and talk show hosts from both the left and the right speak out against this organization. The TSA is a uniting issue, not a dividing one.

Mike

Blogndog

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