Outrageous Behaviour by TSA
 

deleted.

Sorry for your experience, but....
 

A quick look over in the Travel Safety/Security forum will show you that this type behavior on the part of TSA employees is far from uncommon.

Unfortunately. :mad:

But what does it have to do with United?

Glad you made your flight in the end. ^

My thoughts? Don't take legal advice from a FA.

LOL! ^

But it is definitely OK to take free drinks from a lawyer. :D

Haha, absolutely!! ^^

"Winnable Lawsuit." Like stated before, don't take legal advice from a FA.

Last week McDonalds left onions on my burger when I specifically asked for "No Onions." Anyone think I got a case?

Based on what, age discrimination? I believe the law on that does not apply to you (or me for that matter) as it only kicks in after a certain age. It is perfectly legal to discriminate against the youth, just not the elderly.

But don't take legal advice from me either...I am only 1 step up from a FA because I watch Law and Order!

I like your attitude of "really no harm was done" in our over-litigious society. Still, it might be worth a letter to TSA because the screeners' conduct appears to be outrageous. Like all government bureaucracies, TSA has a "civil rights" office (it might be at the DHS level, although TSA does have an office for matters related to screening of passengers with disabilities), and complaints about "civil rights" (in your case, it would be based both on age, because of the comment about people your age not having pacemakers and on disability or medical condition) go right to the top of the list for attention, trumping all of the other legitimate complaints about just plain rude and thuggish behavior from screeners.

To answer another question of yours, the screeners are employed strictly by TSA, so are fully unaccountable except by our political process.

In before the move to TS&S! :D

Ha, right after you, Dave.

Just wanted to say, you shouldn't trust lawyers pontificating about
scheduled airline service either!

As others have stated, this belongs in the Travel Safety/Security forum. Follow it there.

iluv2fly
Moderator, UA

going going, hey where are the super mods?

Wow. TSA guy sounds like a fool.

I don't think you have a winnable lawsuit, because you don't have grounds to make any sort of claim.

Best of luck.

What you MAY have is an opportunity for some more unflattering media exposure of TSA behavior, if you choose to go that route with this, beyond these posts.

If the hand wand can really impact the pace-maker I think this is a little more serious. True in this case there was no harm done but it could have been very serious and the TSA should be called on the carpet for it.

whether you decide to take a legal action or not, I think you should talk to
some reporters about it.

You may have never been asked for it before, but there is always that change that you'll need it. Considering the seriousness and nature of your health condition, wouldn't it make more sense to just have that card handy whenever going through a security check point?? That would seem like the most responsible thing to do.

However, don't take my post as any way of supporting what the TSA did in this situation.

Lawsuit? Forget it.

I would contact ORD management, perhaps the American Medical Association, and last but not least, the ground security coordinator for your airline at ORD.

Don't bother with the e-mail or TSA 800 number stuff, they're only there to read boilerplate statements.

The sad part about that is that because the OP didn't have his card in hand the media spin would likely be that it was all his fault. Such is the case when the sheep flock has the idea that these types of things only happen to those who do something wrong... and as long as they don't do anything wrong it couldn't possibly happen to them.

There is a notice from the FDA about problems like this. Its a real issue - metal detectors have relatively large electromagnets in them and they can easily effect the control circuitry of implantable medical devices. This is one of those situations where millimeter radar might be better.

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/easnote.html

Keep in mind here folks - when someone with a hand wand approaches a pacemaker implanted patient, and activates the wand near their chest, they can kill them. No harm done here, but these TSA jokers will end up getting someone killed if they ignore it when someone says they have a pacemaker. Most acts of TSA incompetence are just annoying, frankly. This one is much more serious. Still not actionable, I suspect - maybe the FA will take the case pro bono? :)

This is arguably an assault. If you would have been so inclined you could have gotten a cop and made a report.

As a practical matter, this would take a whole lot of time and you would have missed your flight, and you probably would have had to escalate past the beat cop on the scene to get someone to take a report.

Report both of the wingnuts to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation for practicing medicine without a license.

Ignoring a request/notice/information provided by OP and doing something
that could potentially be fatal shouldn't be taken lightly. Whether the OP
had the ID or not, his request not to use a metal detector should not have
been ignored.

I wonder if the bad guys are onto this.
 

Seems like it would be a fairly simple matter to implant the explosives disguised as a pacemaker (or even a prosthetic hip joint). Over the ocean, the martyr turns on a GameBoy modified to emit a coded detonation signal, and boom.

You've got to be kidding me.

If a TSO takes it upon himself/herself to decide whether a person
needs a pacemaker or not.. without a medical license... I think he/she
deserves a closer look.

I have a defibrillator and I can tell you that strong magnets can interfere with the functioning of them and pacemakers. It is important that we avoid strong electric or magnetic fields. That includes airport security wands (we are all given cards to show and and are told to request a hand search).

Forget the attorney, but I would be sending out a big fat stack of mail to other sources regarding the incident.

Oh good Lord, here we go again! :mad:. I think you really need to ease up on that paranoia!

OP! As Less stated, please prepare a letter for the airport director, the chair of the aviation commission, the TSA FSD and GSC for your airline. Please PM me if you need to any guidance or assistance.

This is an assault which could have had dire consequences and these screeners need to be terminated. Yes, I mean terminated.

Thank you to those of you who responded appropriately. I appreciate all the input. Since I'm an on-air meteorologist I don't think I want to draw any media attention to myself, but I will be drafting the appropriate letters w/in the next couple of days. I also want to be clear that I loathe the fact that we have become a litigation-happy nation, the only reason I even considered legal procedures was for safety reasons. This guy could kill someone, seriously.

Again, thanks for all the input.

n198ua

I am absolutely not kidding. I have transported 2-year old children with both implanted pacemakers and implanted defibrillators before. It is not the place of any non-physician personnel to determine who is or is not the correct age to have one of these devices. The appropriate agency to report such an incident to is the State Board of Medical Examiners, or whichever board licenses physicians in any given state (I researched and provided a direct link to IL since the OP said the incident occurred at ORD). Maybe if TSA gets a couple of these incidents reported, it will help with the medically-challenged getting through with a minimum of stupidity hassles like the one described by the OP.

You work in news...

It's a perfect sweeps story...

and I'm not kidding either


LV (who has worked in news longer then I care to admit)

Believe me I agree with you! (see my earlier post) But there are so many people who feel that if you do as you are told you have nothing to worry about.... the media seems to lean that way most days (think FOX).

You should also request that the tape of the incident from the security cameras be saved so as to prove up your contention. You need to do that sooner rather than later. Otherwise it is very easy for the TSA to deny that the incident happened.

deleted

Walked away.

What the TSO did was, technically, an assault -- you were placed in fear of an imminent, unpermitted offensive contact. Should you sue? No -- aside from a few moments of fear, you have no damages.

However, next time something like that happens, call for a LEO immediately. The moron TSO could have sent you to the hospital or even killed you. Assault is assault and, once told that you had a pacemaker, he had absolutely no business approaching you with the wand -- waving that wand at you was no different than waving a knife or pointing a loaded gun. If it was me, I'd have pressed charges. At minimum, that idiot should be fired. I think he should have been arrested.

Had this happened in CVG or LEX, I would have pressed charges accordingly:

KRS 508.060 Wanton endangerment in the first degree.
(1) A person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person.

(2) Wanton endangerment in the first degree is a Class D felony.
Effective: January 1, 1975
History: Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 406, sec. 70, effective January 1, 1975.

What would likely happen is that they would drop it to Wanton endangerment in the second degree, which is a Class A misdemeanor. But I bet you could make this one stick.

Go for it. Find out what statutes cover both these cretins' actions, and see if you can sock it to them. Felony would be great, but a misdemeanor with enough press coverage would be almost as good.

Can you imagine the chastising effect such a case would have on the entire TSA clown show? I'm really tired of the public being pushed around the way reports on this forum prove.

Get those tapes subpoenaed and under evidentiary rules NOW!

Nail head. Hammer. Hit.

I agree completely.

While I agree with your sentiment, I don't think it's assault due to the lack of mens rea.