Minnesota family angered by TSA treatment at Phoenix Sky Harbor
Aug 24, 2016, 3:18 PM | Updated: Aug 25, 2016, 11:21 am
PHOENIX — A Minnesota family said they are angry over the way they were treated by the Transportation Security Administration at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport over the weekend.
Ali Bergstrom told Fox 9 that she and her family were moving through security when a TSA agent stopped her 9-year-old son, Chille, who has heart defects.
The Phoenix agents would not allow Chille, who has a pacemaker, bypass the metal detector, despite Ali claiming she had the correct documentation that would allow him to go through alternate screening. Ali said numerous officials and law enforcement officers responded and her family was detained for over an hour.
“It really makes me question their judgment that, if they all think together, unified, that this type of treatment of a child is OK, I wonder, you know, what other things they’re thinking,” she told told the news outlet.
Ali claimed that, while her family was detained, the TSA claimed it had stopped terrorist plots involving young children with pacemakers in the past.
“I laughed and said, ‘Oh when?’ At that point, the TSA agent became very quiet and said, ‘Oh we’re not at liberty to discuss this,’” she told Fox 9.
In release, TSA Spokesman Nico Melendez said the agency is looking into the event and planning to contact the family.
