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| Passenger: Airport Search Like a Breast Exam KYW|Sep 21, 2004 PHILADELPHIA (KYW) A passenger who went through intense screening at Philadelphia International Airport is speaking out. The woman says the security search that she went through was like a breast exam and highly inappropriate. CBS 3's Tamsen Fadal reports it's no mystery that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has intensified the searches everyone must pass through before boarding a flight. In fact the new regulations went into effect on Monday but one woman told Fadal it went too far, way too far. Passenger Belinda Bullard says the security screening she went through at Philadelphia International Airport on Monday landed her in the hospital with stress related chest pains: “I thought I don't care if I never get on an airplane again if I have to go through this.” Bullard, an Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Controller from Michigan was on her way home from vacation when she was put through a secondary screening, which basically means a more intense search. “It was just like getting a breast exam when you go for a mammogram and I was so taken back by it. They started at the collar bone and worked their way down like and went around each breast kneading each one like this. I was just overwhelmed with the sense of being violated and I just started to cry,” Bullard said. Fadal has learned that Bullard has since lodged a complaint against the TSA, claiming the female screener in Terminal E told her she was getting "...an upper torso pat” The complaint goes on to say "…I was overcome, feeling humiliated and started crying." TSA Spokesperson Ann Davis told us by phone that screeners are trained to verbalize what they are about to do: “Certianly any case or allegation of impropriety will always be investigated but there are two sides to every story so I would certainly want to pursue this further but I can assure you that TSA always investigates the complaints. We want passengers to have a pleasant experience." “I did have this thought of what if I've landed in another country where I don't have any rights. I just couldn't believe that could happen in the United States,” Bullard added. Fadal reports that Bullard says she did try to report the incident to Philadelphia Police as an assault once she arrived back in Michigan but says she was told she could not so over the phone.
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