When Alaska State Rep. Sharon Cissna tried to fly from Seattle back home to Juneau, she was was directed towards one of the new full body scanning machines. When something showed up on the scanner that needed extra attention, she was told she’d need a full pat-down instead.
Cissna, who has a mastectomy refused the invasive security treatment and left the airport, opting to travel back to Alaska by ferry.
The journey on the ferry from Seattle to Juneau takes twelve hours, but it doesn’t involve being subjected to invasive TSA security measures.
Her chief of staff reports that she did indeed undergo a full body scan that showed her mastectomy. It was not clear why the full body scan then required a followup pat-down.
Kudos to her for taking a stand and refusing to deal with this security theater. After investing millions in these new scanners, and giving up a lot of our privacy, there should be absolutely no need to force passengers to go through three different levels of security just to get on a plane.