Baby is put into airport X-ray machine - Los Angeles Times
Baby is put into airport X-ray machine
A woman unfamiliar with screening procedures places her month-old grandson in a bin for carry-on items. A TSA worker watching the monitor notices the shape of a child and pulls him out.
By Jennifer Oldham
Times Staff Writer
8:27 PM PST, December 19, 2006
A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine.
The early Saturday accident -- bizarre but not unprecedented -- caught airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time, officials said.
A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt. The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined that he did not receive a dangerous dose of radiation.
Aviation officials, who declined to release the 56-year-old woman's name, said she spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English [ "apparently" was a dimwit, too !]. She initially did not want the baby transported to a hospital, but security officials called paramedics and insisted that the child be examined by a doctor.
The grandmother and the child were subsequently allowed to board an Alaska Airlines flight to Mexico City. ...