Boxers or Briefs? Rep. Dingell's Airport Exposure


By Lloyd Grove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 8, 2002; Page C03


Count frequent flier Rep. John Dingell, ranking member of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, among the victims of post-9-11 airline security measures. After his artificial hip set off a metal detector Saturday afternoon, the 75-year-old Michigan Democrat was ordered to pull down his pants at Reagan National Airport as he tried to board Northwest Airlines Flight 1417 to Detroit.

Dingell, who flies Northwest between Washington and Detroit around 100 times a year, told us yesterday that he explained to an airport security employee he was wearing a knee brace and surgically implanted pins are in his ankles, as well as a steel hip joint. Dingell said he refused a request to send his wallet through the X-ray machine, telling employees that a few weeks earlier jewelry had been stolen from his wife, General Motors Foundation President Debbie Dingell, when she sent it through.

It was then that the security employee, known as a screener, ordered him to unhook the brace from his knee and remove his shoes and socks, Dingell said. Then the congressman was led into a temporary office and directed to lower his slacks while the employee waved a metal-detecting wand over his boxer shorts.

"I complied, but tried to do it with some small bit of dignity," Dingell said, adding that afterward he couldn't help seething to his wife, "Woman, do you realize what they made me do?" He added: "It seems to me that there was some incompetence involved here." The screener appeared to be unaware of Dingell's status as a congressman, and Dingell stressed that he never mentioned it during the ordeal.

Northwest Airlines spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch yesterday defended the conduct of the screener, an employee of the airline's security contractor, Globe Aviation, saying the employee was merely following procedures mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. "We regret any inconveniences that FAA-mandated procedures created for Representative Dingell," Ebenhoch said, adding that Globe employees "performed their duties in a professional and dignified manner."

Maybe. But yesterday, after we alerted Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to Dingell's suffering, Mineta phoned his former House colleague to apologize profusely. "The secretary got ahold of Mr. Dingell and told him he is appalled," said Mineta's communications director, Chet Lunner, adding that Mineta had also been subjected to rigorous probing at airports, though not pants-dropping. "They're old friends, and he said, 'John, I feel your pain. I fly commercial all the time, and it seems like they sometimes pick out public officials to make an example of them and show how thorough they are.' "

Dingell recounted: "I said, 'Norm, I'm not asking for an apology. And I know we don't want any more events like September 11th. I don't want any special treatment. I don't want to be treated any better than anyone else, but I don't want to be treated any worse either.' "



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