Baby pat-down: Security staff check an eight-month-old for explosives
The row over airport security “pat downs” in the US was reignited this week after pictures emerged on Twitter of an eight-month-old baby being frisked at Kansas City International.
A pastor who had successfully passed through security took the picture after feeling that the pat-down “didn’t sit right” with him. He then posted it on Twitter, causing an overnight sensation.
The picture has now been seen by more than 300,000 viewers.
But Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nick Kimball insisted staff were just doing their job as the child’s buggy had set off an alert of possible traces of explosives. The security officers were simply following this up, he said.
The Reverend Jacob Jester has since registered shock that his picture should cause such a stir.
He apologised to the mother of the baby for the exposure but said she simply laughed it off.
Kimball added: “Less than 3% of all passengers get pat-downs at the checkpoint.”
A similar furore was caused last month when a six-year-old child was patted down at an airport in New Orleans.
by Dinah Hatch
