During the pat-down, Transportation Security Administration inspectors found a mass on Lena Reppert's upper thigh, her daughter Jean Weber said. The mass was a hard spot on the diaper that had become heavy and concentrated in that place because it was wet. Reppert, who is in a wheelchair, had to be patted down because she couldn't go through a scanning machine, and the TSA agents said they could not search the diaper while she was still wearing it, Weber said.
Reppert couldn't board a June 18 flight from Northwest Florida Regional Airport in Fort Walton Beach to Detroit until she was cleared by security, Weber said. Reppert, who has leukemia and had been living in the Florida Panhandle, was returning to her native Hastings, Mich., where she wants to be buried.
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Weber, a waitress, said she was told the diaper would have to be removed so the agents could finish their pat-down. They had not packed any extra diapers in their carry-on because her mother has never needed backups before.
"She had to remove them," Weber said. "She would not be cleared with those Depends on."
TSA officials said the agency's inspectors did nothing wrong and followed proper procedure. Spokesman Nick Kimball also said the officers did not force Reppert to remove the diaper.
"While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner," Kimball said.
Officials offered to pull their luggage off the plane so Reppert could change into a clean diaper, but Weber said she feared her mother, a retired nurse, would miss her flight.
"She is frail. I had arranged for these times because it's the time she was the strongest every day," Weber said. "I just did not want to put her through some kind of wait."
However, Weber said the agents would not allow her to remove the diaper in the screening room
-- so she had to take her mother to a restroom outside the security area, and then wait in line to be screened again. The second time, Weber said she triggered an alarm herself because she was upset and crying.