Airport pat-downs prompt couple to forego flight

Glen and Jean Hook were supposed to fly to Las Vegas on Monday for a Thanksgiving family get-together.

The elderly Kalispell couple bought the tickets a month ago, just before the federal Transportation Security Administration’s new requirements began Nov. 1 for full-body scans and pat-downs at airports across the United States.

Faced with the prospect of the invasive searches, the Hooks chose to stay home.

“I’m disappointed,” Glen Hook said. “Yeah, I’ve cut off my nose to spite my face I guess, but I’m not going to have some man fondle me. The last few days I’ve watched [on television] guys running their hands up crotches and feeling them. I just think it’s too invasive.”

Hook has metal in his body from a hip replacement and other surgeries that typically set off airport metal detectors and require more thorough searches with wands. He believes his circumstances would put him in line for a full body pat-down.

“Had I known this beforehand, I wouldn’t have bought the tickets and we would have made arrangements to drive down” to Las Vegas, he added. “There’s just nothing right about this, there’s no common sense. My daughter is so mad at me right now, she told me, ‘I guess the terrorists won.’”

The Hooks also have had numerous CT scans in the past for medical conditions and have been advised by their doctors to have no more radiation unless in emergency situations, Hook said. Glacier Park International Airport doesn’t have a full-body scanning machine yet, but the Las Vegas airport does.

The federal government maintains the radiation dose from a full-body scan is not a health threat, but some scientists worry the machines could malfunction and expose passengers to excess radiation.

The Hooks are among a growing number of Americans who believe the new security requirements are too rigid.

Stephanie Baca of Kalispell wrote to the Daily Inter Lake on Monday to share her recent experience at Denver International Airport, where she was ordered to have a full-body scan and wasn’t given the option of a pat-down even though she’s a cancer patient and was worried about the radiation.

When “anomalies” were found on her scanned picture, she was subjected to a pat-down “in front of God and everyone” and then was brought to a room for further searching.

“The ‘pat down’ was a rub down,” she wrote. “Hands inside my pants, between my toes, down my back, under my shirt, etc. The crotch area was searched three times. After a five-minute wait I was told I was free to go.”

With one of the busiest air-travel weeks already in motion, a loosely organized Internet boycott of body scans was gaining momentum on Monday and threatened to snarl airport traffic.

Those who refuse to be scanned must undergo a manual pat-down. And those who decline the pat-down are forbidden to fly.

Glacier Park International Airport Director Cindi Martin said she hasn’t received any “major complaints,” but has gotten a lot of calls, mostly anonymous, from air travelers who have commented in some regard about the new procedures.

She’s had not one call from anyone liking the added security measures.

The airport eventually will get a full-body scanner, Martin said, and is in the process of working up a design configuration to accommodate not only the machine but also the secure room where the scans — which are virtual naked images — are reviewed by a screener. According to federal requirements, the screener cannot see the person being scanned.

Passengers are chosen for the full-body pat-downs in one of two ways: either by random selection or if a security worker believes there is “reasonable suspicion” to pat down a person, Martin said. Baggy clothing can send up a red flag for security employees.

Children 12 and younger are exempt from the pat-downs but must submit to the full-body scanner if they’re selected.

Martin acknowledged that the pat-downs “are pretty aggressive.” In the past, security workers used the backs of their hands to conduct a search. Now they use their palms and fingers to pat down a passenger, and that includes a “probe of private parts,” she said.

“Many people find it very offensive that they’re treated as if they’re guilty until proven innocent,” she said.

Glacier Park International is one of several Montana airports still waiting for final approval to privatize its security force. The airport applied in July 2009 to the Transportation Security Administration Screening Partnership Program to use a private contractor for security screening.

“The program was funded and they have everything they need to do the approval,” Martin said. “We’re still waiting for TSA to put an RFP (request for proposal) out. Butte is still waiting. Missoula is still waiting, so is West Yellowstone.”

Even with a private contractor, though, airports must follow TSA’s requirements for security screening. But through privatization the airport management can have a bigger say in customer service, Martin said.

“Customer service is very important to us,” she said.

“It’s not the airport that does this,” she said about the body scans and pat-downs. “The security process is out of our hands, but I’m happy to listen to concerns and will pass them along” to TSA.

Martin said bookings for Thanksgiving week are reasonably strong, comparable to last year. Early bookings for Christmas are strong, too.

The reinforced security measures are TSA’s response to the alleged attempt by a man with explosives in his underwear to try to bring down a flight bound for Detroit last Christmas. But it’s difficult for the public to understand why it has taken nearly a year to put added security in place, Martin said.

“The public is having a hard time digesting that this is for safety,” she said.

TSA Chief John Pistole on Monday urged passengers angry over safety procedures not to boycott the body scans, according to the Associated Press. But at the same time he pledged to review the procedures.

For Glen and Jean Hook, the decision to forego the possibility of a pat-down means they will spend Thanksgiving without their family. Both of them have struggled with serious medical problems in recent years, so the loss of time with family members hits them hard.

“I’m not going to have that many more Thanksgivings to spend with them,” Glen Hook said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.