Airport Security Staff Search Toddler's Wheelchair For Explosives

Airport Security Staff Search Toddler's Wheelchair For Explosives

A wheelchair-bound toddler on her way to Disneyland was left in tears after airport security staff searched her for explosives.

In video recorded by her parents, three-year-old Lucy Forck, who suffers from spina bifida, is very distressed as guards take her teddy bear away, telling her mum and dad her wheelchair must be searched.

Lucy cries: "I don't want to go to Disney World."

Her parents Nathan and Annie were stunned by the way airport officials handled the screening and decided to film the incident earlier this month.

When Annie started recording Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials incorrectly told her that taping security procedures was illegal. But she refused to put her phone down and later uploaded the upsetting video to YouTube.

Dad Nathan said: "It was the first time we travelled anywhere together as a family.

"I guess everyone else takes the TSA's scrutiny for granted, but we wanted to speak up and say that it doesn't have to be like this."

The Forcks were heading to Orlando for a big family vacation, bringing along three of their four children. It was the first time that Lucy had been to an airport so she was clutching her stuffed animal called Lambie for comfort.

But as soon as she passed through a scanner at the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in Missouri, US, an agent pulled her aside before he took away her toy and she burst out crying.

Nathan described how one agent said that she needed to check Lucy's wheelchair for any kind of explosives.

The family, from Osage Beach in Missouri, were then forced to wait around for up to three-quarters-of an-hour while little Lucy wept inconsolably.

Nathan added: "It's heart-breaking because she was singled out just because she was disabled."

In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration said: "TSA regrets inaccurate guidance was provided to this family during screening and offers its apology."

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