I was away from home recently so missed all the furore about the screening fiasco with the 3 year old disabled child. I am a fairly seasoned traveller and know to never argue with anyone in authority at the airport if I want to have any chance to make my flight.

I thought I might relate one of our own experiences. Going through TSA screening with a wheelchair is a circus at the best of times. In June 2012 we took our 26 year old daughter with cerebral palsy to Maui through LAX. She is alert and can both understand what is being said and respond to questions verbally and clearly. However she cannot stand. It also means that she cannot use a bathroom without an attendant to lift her/ undress her etc.Therefore, although fully continent, it means that for long flights she needs to wear an adult diaper ( just in case), even though she doesn't need one otherwise and finds having to wear one humiliating . ( Have you tried getting 2 people into an aircraft washroom. I have and it's not even vaguely accessible, despite the disabled sticker suggesting otherwise).

At LAX we had a tight connection. With a wheelchair and at LAX in particular I define anything less than 4 hours as "tight" . We were arriving from YYZ but our inbound flight was 2 hours late. We were met by an airline agent who wanted to " assist us" through the terminal to meet our next flight. Normally after a flight the first thing we do is head to the washroom but that can be a 15 - 20 minute process and the agent said there was no way he would wait for that. I asked my daughter and she said she could hang on until after security, so off we went.

Little were we prepared for the pantomime that then ensued. There was construction being done so the screening area access/ lines were really messed up. After waiting 5 - 10 minutes we were ushered to bypass the metal detectors, where we were told that my daughter would need a pat down. No problem there please go ahead. I was told that they wouldn't go ahead without my presence, which again I understand as she is a young woman after all.

That couldn't happen until I had been screened first. In order to do this I was directed to the back of the regular screening line, where I took another 10 -15 minutes to get through ( at a conservative estimate). By this time my daughter was definitely needing to go pee. We asked. No I'm sorry you can't until we have finished.

Next they start the pat down routine and wheelchair swab. When they asked her to stand up I informed them again that she couldn't do so and offered to do a pariial lift ( she weighs over 100 lbs ) lifting her bum from the chair so that they can search underneath. This took a long time because she was wearing a diaper and they were having problems dealing with this. I can tell you that holding her up for what seemed like forever was not easy on my back at all but this we do anyway.

I am now ready to take her to the bathroom which she so desperately needs only to find that there is another stage/ delay necessary. Apparently, even though I was already screened, because I had then touched somebody who hadn't yet been screened ( my daughter in order to help them) I had to be screened again, this time including a full pat down. No problem but can I take my daughter to the bathroom first because by now she is definitely squirming. Apparently not. I then undergo the full patdown including the backs of hands down the front of my pants etc. etc.

Finally we get the all clear and it is over 1 hour after we disembarked from our first flight and my daughter hadn't been able to hang on. She was embarrassed and upset.

The final straw. There were no unisex/ disabled bathrooms in LAX so I had to either take her into the mens room and wait by the urinals for the accessible stall to become vacant or head into the ladies and deal with those who call security because a man is in the ladies ( and yes it does happen all too predictably). Fortunately on askin at the UA RC Lounge we were taken to an empty UA First Class Lounge where I could take her to the men's room with no problem. And yes we made our connection but only just.

My point about raising this is that the TSA really needs to figure out how they are going to deal with this because the process seems so uneccessarily cumbersome and has little thought to human dignity. I also don't think it makes flying that much safer. My daughter's passport indicates clearly that she is unable to sign her name, so it should have been obvious that this wasn't a fake disability to get by security with a wheelchair full of explosives.

It took 2 screeners and 1 supervisor out of regular circulation and not looking for real bad guys. The need for my second screening at the same checkppoint seemed to be overkill. I was in their sight while lifting her bum. How I was supposed to secrete the hidden weapon from the chair to my person I don't know. If I was going to have to go through a full screen after why could I not have just done this once, after they had patted down my daughter and I had had a chance to sneak something onto my person? If they are sending me back for screening after helping my daughter why do I have to go to the back of the line and queue for 10 minutes or more a second time? Haven't I served my time in line already that day? Honest folks I'm not queue jumping!

Anyway, after 26 years of frequent flying my daughter has indicated that as much as she loves going to new places (and warm places in winter)she has had enough and no longer wishes to travel with us. Some of that is because it is increasingly hard for both her and myself but also because the security screening process has become so frustrating. It would probably have happened anyway, as she is after all a young adult now and it is natural to spend less time with your parents. But the tipping point was without a doubt her recent experiences at airport security. ( when a teen she had been upset when security had confiscated her plastic Crayola crinkle cut scissors post 9/11 but she got over that one)

I am very sorry to hear your story, and wish you and your family the best.

So sorry to hear of you and your daughters' poor treatment and abuse.

The TSA still needs to be reminded that travelers are not prisoners, criminals, criminal defendants or subordinates. We are clients and there are customer service requirements.

Of course, training many of those whose greatest accomplishment was finding the airport and learning that there were other places to travel, still remains an immense task.

Thanks to both of you for your comments.

In all fairness to the TSA agents this was not a hostile experience by any means but merely frustrating and one where once you had "entered the process" so to speak there was little room for discretion, nor much evidence of common sense. TBH I recall the individual agents conducting the pat downs were polite, apologetic and a little embarrassed. The agents who directed me to the back of the line when going through on my own were perhaps oblivious to the fact I had been through the line once already and were not willing to engage in conversation other than "To the back of the line Sir".

My point on posting this is more to highlight that TSA has issues in how it is going to address passengers with special needs. A policy driven One Size Fits All approach will not work as each individual has , by definition, Special Needs. For the most part we have not had experiences like this. Usually I wheel her up, go through screening myself, she is patted down and swabbed and we are on our way. We have done this many times ( we used to fly with her 2- 6 times per year). We have been through security like this with her in Canada, the US, UK, and the Caribbean on multiple occassions. This time was particularly slow and convoluted and made worse by the fact that she needed the bathroom and they were unable or unwilling to accommodate this. In hindsight I should have told the airline agent that we were sorry but she had to go to the bathroom anyway, no matter what his hurry.

Usually we avoid LAX because we find it by far the most disorganized and unfriendly airport we have to deal with, even without a wheelchair, but on this occassion we didn't.

The return journey wasn't great either. We arrived at LAX at 5 am ish, having flown overnight from OGG. We had to change terminals but the wheelchair bus doesn't start until 7 or 7:30 so we couldn't use this. To compound matters the elevators we could find to take us to street level were out of service. An LAX staff member we approached was helpful to a degree. He spoke to a supervisor and then took us down a staff elevator and through the TSA locker rooms where the next shift seemed to be getting ready. We were taken out to street level before the staffer pointed out the way to terminal 2 and then left. Well it's not a short walk at 5-6 am, especially when you don't really know where you are going and these roads aren't really designed for pedestrians ( infrequent crossings , limited signage etc. ). When we arrived at T2 the street level doors were closed and entry was via an escalator. We had to head into the parkade to find an elevator to the bridge to take us to the departure level. We managed it but I wonder what would have happened had we been less experienced travellers.There was little to no provision for special needs pax. The buses connecting terminals that could accommodate WC don't appear to be readily available and staff members don't seem to know how to deal with it.

That's not likely to happen when the attitude (at least among FAMs) is:

Link

Adler's quote is so very charming...perhaps they'll see how expendable we are if more of us said bollocks to the airlines, stopped flying, and revenues/airport traffic plummeted. Now that would be charming.

If I'm irrelevant to safety, why the *#^{% am I searched like a terrorist?

To the OP: it truly broke my heart to hear your daughter no longer wishes to travel with you. If there was anything I could do I'd do it....

Thank you for your kind words. I think to be fair we were getting to the end of the time when air travel with her was feasible but I'm sad that this was her her most recent experience. She is heavier than she was when we flew more when she was younger plus I am older ( not decrepit yet but feeling that way sometimes ).Finally our other two kids are grown up and going their own way and she lives in a group home and has her own life independant of us.

Changing the subject slightly I think that Adler's comments are being taken a little out of context TBH. When I read the article I understood the quote to represent how he felt the TSA management thought of passengers, not that this was his view. He was complaining about this sentiment not supporting it.

Finally I note from your previous posts that you have a military background. As an ex British military member may I thank you for your service even though I am now Canadian.

Just a couple of comments on things that caught my eye:

On most widebodies, the flight attendant can block off the entire row of lavatories, and then you would be able to assist your daughter without everyone gawking.

I'm not sure why her weight is a factor - I know 250 pound male quads who fly. Nobody lifts them for screening and TSA somehow manages to clear them. Sometimes when TSA says, "Can you do X?" you just gotta answer "No" and let them deal with it.

Her weight is a factor because I physically have to lift her from her chair to the aisle chair and then the aisle chair to the seat and vice versa. We can avoid that by getting help from ground staff boarding and disembarking but there is no help available in flight. Many quads are catherized but she isn't, so longer flights are more difficult.

It's also a factor when we get to our destination because I have to lift her on and off toilets, into shower chairs etc etc. As a consequence of my increasing age her weight is a factor. There are limits with regards to availability of mechanical lifts etc especially when travelling to countries less advanced than the US/ Canada/ UK etc. I actually find the UK to be the most facilitating, although with older historic properties and generally smaller spaces it can still be a pain no matter how willing the locals to help.

I wasn't aware about blocking off a whole row of seats. Not having to close the door would be some help but there is also not a lot of room even then. The only other concern is that our home airport YQR isn't served by widebodies at all. The biggest aircraft we get are Embraer 90s I think they are called. We always have to connect through 1 and sometimes 2 locations before we get that luxury.

Also the decision to stop travelling was hers not ours. I was willing to keep on doing it, although my wife was worried on my behalf. I'm not that old ( at least I think not) being in my mid 50s but I am certainly not getting younger.

My only point was that as she got bigger it was harder for us both. I don't actually know her weight because the only way we have done it in the past is for me to weigh myself, then lift her and step onto the scales with 2 of us. As our combined weight exceeds the maximum of the scales we have I can only speculate but it is at least 100 and more likely 120 lbs. Quite petite really but heavy enough to be too heavy for a 1 person lift all the time.

Thank you, you're welcome - and thank you for yours as well. Doesn't matter when we're all allies....I used to work with the Brit MPs when I was a K9 handler and deployed to the sandbox and always had a blast. Must've, really, because I ended up marrying a British national in 2000 and we'll celebrate our 13th anniversary this April!

Completely understood! I just wanted to point out that different folks choose different ways around various obstacles, whether it's having a Foley put in for plane travel, bringing a shower chair or portable Hoyer lift, or whatever...

Congratulations to you both. My service ended before Gulf I so it was Cold War only so no nasty stuff happening ( well apart from the food that is).

I appreciated your advice and wished I'd discovered the forum you moderate on FT a long time ago. I could have learned so much from that.^

I felt sorry to hear from your daughter's condition. I wasn't sure why TSA had a problem with her. She couldn't stand and she can't move. Unfortunately, there is nothing can be done for now. You can get comment card from TSA. If you want to write the letter to your US Congress. Nobody who taking your own responsibilities. TSA will try to best everything they can. You are always welcome back to USA. You can fly to US anytime if you want.

Just for the record, the biggest scheduled aircraft we get at YQR are 737-800s on WS and the odd 319-200 on AC, but most flights are E-175s/E190s, CRJ-200s/700s/705s, and Dash 8-300s and -400s. We get the odd widebody charter but not with daily service.