The woman at the center of a viral video at Detroit Metro Airport is telling us she felt humiliated during a pat-down.
Angela Rye, a CNN contributor, was in town for a speaking engagement last Thursday and was flying to New York.
Rye felt a randomly selected secondary search was becoming too invasive, so she asked a security officer to record the rest of the pat-down.
She tells us the TSA agent first used the back of her hand to pat her down, but then went up her dress and hit her her private area.
Rye told us, "I was just super disgusted. I felt humiliated, and violated, so I burst into tears."
She questions how this sort of pat down keeps us safer, and hopes the video leads to a better system.
The TSA released a statement to 7 Action News saying:
The Transportation Security Administration takes reports of alleged impropriety very seriously. TSA looked into the specific details related to the screening process and concluded that our security protocols were followed. It is worth noting that just seven years ago on December 25, 2009, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab flew from Amsterdam to Detroit wearing an explosive device in his underwear. AbdulMutallab pleaded guilty to carrying that explosive device on an aircraft with 289 passengers and attempting to detonate that device. TSA’s procedures, including pat down screenings, are designed to prevent such an act. TSA officers must work to resolve all alarms at the checkpoint to ensure everyone arrives safely at their destination. We regret any distress the security screening process may have caused the passenger. We are in contact with the passenger and will continue to work with her directly to address her concerns.
Rye says, "Of course the nation needs to be secure, and of course we need to prevent terrorism, but my question is, how does this help that process?"
