Prosthetic breast removed at airport

[Groove Armada]

Prosthetic breast removed at airport

A flight attendant was forced to remove her prosthetic breast at an airport in US. According to procedures implemented at US airports nationwide, passengers and crew must go through full-body scanners called the millimeter wave machine. Otherwise, they will be patted down, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced.

This file photo taken on Nov 17, 2010, shows a TSA agent performing an enhanced pat-down on a traveler at Denver International Airport​

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In the August incident, Cathy Bossi - a cancer survivor - was reluctant to go through the scanners at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, as she did not want the added radiation through her body. Then, she was taken to a room by two female TSA agents, she told WBTV.

One of them got around to feeling her breasts and stopped at the right side - the one where she had had surgery due to breast cancer. "She put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' "And I said: 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer,'" said the cancer survivor. And in a ridiculous replied, the agant said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.'"

Bossi, a stewardess of 32 years including 28 with US Airways, said she removed the prosthetic breast from her bra. "It was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me," she said. "I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."

A TSA agent demonstrating the full-body scanner at San Diego International Airport​

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A TSA spokesperson told the station that agents were not supposed to remove any prosthetics but were allowed to ask to see and touch any passenger's prosthetic. The agency said it would review the matter. Bossi's story is just one of many fueling a backlash with some complaining of being sexually assaulted.

Another traveller Penny Moroney revealed of her horrific experience at Lambert Airport in St. Louis to Daily Mail, UK. While going through security, the metal in Moroney's artificial knees set off the detectors. So, she had to undergo more screening but none of the body scanners was available.

The only alternative offered to her was a pat-down. "Her gloved hands touched my breasts... went between them. "Then she went into the top of my slacks, inserted her hands between my underwear and my skin... then put her hands up on the outside of my slacks, and patted my genitals," she said.

"I was shaking and crying when I left that room. Under any other circumstance, if a person touched me like that without my permission, it would be considered criminal sexual assault." Some travelers are using the Internet to organise protests against the procedures.