82-year-old held for two hours after airport scuffle

Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan.

An 82-year-old Texas woman had forgotten to take her bipolar medication before she scuffled with an airport security officer in Kansas and was arrested and jailed for about two hours, her husband said Friday.

Silas Bryan, blamed a “little bottle of soap” for touching off the confrontation between his wife, Lila Mae Bryan, of Mesquite, and Transportation Security Administration workers at Eisenhower International Airport in Wichita. The TSA said the problem was that the bottle found Wednesday in her carry-on bag was over the 3.4 ounce limit. The TSA said Friday that the woman has apologized for walking around an X-ray screening belt and assaulting an officer.

TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon said the security officer found the bottle during a routine search when the woman’s bag triggered an alarm. An airport police officer who saw the commotion “removed the passenger from the checkpoint,” Harmon said. Airport police authorized the woman’s arrest.

Silas Bryan said they had been to their farm in Kansas and gone to her 65th class reunion. He said they’d had a long drive that included stops to visit relatives and had not gotten much sleep the night before the flight. He said his wife, who is bipolar, had forgotten to take her medication.

“She’s OK. I think it was all unnecessary,” he said, adding that he didn’t see what happened because his wife was behind him in the security line.

The 37-year-old TSA officer was not injured, according to reports.