Airport security: Should elderly people get special treatment?

PA

Airline passengers who are over the age of 75 will now be able to keep their shoes and light jackets on at security checkpoints across four US airports from Monday.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced the move on Wednesday, according to USA Today.

The new rules are similar to the regulations for children up to 12, and will reduce the need for pat-downs for the elderly.

The TSA has often come under fire for its tough procedures since the 9/11 attacks, so the changes are part of a strategy to focus more on potentially riskier passengers.

Agency spokesman Jim Fotenos told the Huffington Post: "By moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to security and applying some intelligence-driven and risk-based security models, TSA is looking at how this works for passengers."

Back in December 2011, an 85-year-old woman in a wheelchair says she was strip-searched after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.

Lenore Zimmerman, who has a defibrillator for heart problems, was worried that airport scanners at JFK Airport, New York, would interfere with her life-saving device. After asking for an alternative security check, she says was taken to a private room and told to remove her clothes in a humiliating search that also left her injured.

What's more, back in June 2011, airport security officers in Florida patted down a cancer-stricken 95-year-old woman and made her remove her adult 'nappy' during the search.

Perhaps the new rules will avoid such situations.

Should elderly people get special treatment at airport security? Give us your comments below.


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