‘Airport security left me feeling humiliated’
SECURITY search procedures have been revised at Guernsey Airport after a woman with a stoma bag was left feeling panicked and humiliated after being publicly searched.
Anne-Marie Lake, 54, lives in Northampton and regularly visits the island to see family. On this occasion she was returning to the UK after a week’s stay.
She was on her own and due to catch a flight to Birmingham Airport. She has had a stoma bag for 11 years and has never had a problem while travelling before.
‘I’ve never known anything like this and I’ve been travelling for years and years,’ she said.
It was when Mrs Lake went through security that she had her unpleasant experience, where a member of security personnel kept lifting up her top in public and left her feeling panicked.
Head of passenger operations and aviation security for Guernsey Ports Steve Langlois said that it was normal for a passenger who sets off an alarm to have a more thorough search take place and this can be carried out in a private room.
‘We have since spoken to Mrs Lake and apologised to her for any distress or discomfort she had experienced, and gave her an assurance that we would investigate whether the appropriate process had been followed and where necessary to review our procedures,’ he said.
On the day of the incident Mrs Lake was not aware of the security gate making a sound when she walked through, but was asked to step into the body scanner.
‘Then this woman started patting me down and I told her you can’t really do that here, I’ve got a stoma,’ she said.
‘She said she could see that on the screen. Then she got the wand and I said, “You can’t do that here”.
‘She kept lifting my top up and I kept pulling it down.’
Mrs Lake said she felt humiliated.
‘The place was absolutely packed.
‘There were footballers coming through and there were about five or six different flights.
‘It was awful. Everybody kept looking at me.
‘I thought I was going to have a panic attack.
‘To make matters worse they left an image up on the screen so everyone could see I had something on my belly.’
She felt like she was a criminal but thought that if she did not let the woman carry on she might not have been allowed to fly.
Even after she had been searched her ordeal continued, she said, with people staring at her as she went to sit down in departures and also when she boarded the plane.
She had praise for the Aurigny air crew, though, one of whom realised she was distressed and made her a cup of coffee.
Her husband and daughter met her when she landed.
‘I was in a bit of a state,’ she said.
Mrs Lake made a formal complaint to the airport authorities and received a call from them and an email from G4S Security, the latter of which apologised if Mrs Lake had not been offered a private room in which to be searched.
Even a month on from her experience she said it has played on her mind, so she decided to contact the media to highlight her poor treatment.
After discussions with G4S the search procedures had been revised, so that when passengers tell staff they are carrying any medical devices they will be offered a private search at the earliest opportunity.
