What started with a juice box and ringing mobile phone, ended with an uncomfortable encounter between a father, his daughter and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). While en route from North Carolina to their home in California after the holidays, the pair were pulled off to the side during a routine airport screening. Kevin Payne then looked on as his 10-year-old daughter was pat down for nearly two minutes. He believes that this was excessive.
NBC News reports that the encounter began after a juice box was found in his daughter’s carry on bag. The contents of the juice box exceeded the amount of liquid allowed in carry on luggage. The juice box, according to NBC San Diego was mistakenly left in the bag. NBC News also reported that after confiscating the juice box the little girl’s bag was swabbed by TSA agents. The sample came back with a false-positive result for explosives.
The TSA released a statement to NBC News explaining that the agents acted within the approved protocols related to these specific circumstances. They cited the combination of the false-positive result for explosives and the ringing mobile phone warranted such action.
it was, you know, an uncomfortable situation.
Payne told NBC San Diego about the experience of watching his young daughter be needlessly pat down by the TSA agent, saying that, “it was, you know, an uncomfortable situation.” Payne explained that he did not raise the issue to the TSA at the airport because he wanted to avoid missing their flight back home to California and that he also did not want to further upset his daughter. NBC News wrote that the TSA had not made contact with, nor had been contact with the Paynes.
In a comment to NBC San Diego, the young girl stated that she hoped that TSA agents would focus less on children during their future security checks.
ABC News posted a video of the encounter on their official YouTube channel.
