Duluth, MN, TSA Won't Let 22-Month Old Baby Fly With Vital Medical Equipment

Jason Hegg and his 22-month old son, Carter, fly a lot. They usually travel between Detroit Metro and Cook, MN. Carter is a special needs child -- he must have a nebulizer to overcome his asthma. He has no problem getting the nebulizer through TSA checkpoints at Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul. But the TSA screeners at Duluth won't let him board with the very equipment upon which his life could depend.

A nebulizer is a device that delivers liquid medication in the form of a mist to the airways. Nebulizer compressors force air through tubing into a medicine cup filled with liquid medicine. The force of the air breaks the liquid into tiny mist-like particles that can be inhaled deeply into the airways.

"I fly a lot for work," Jason told the Mesabi, MN, Daily News. He's a design engineer with Hyundai Motors. "I fly with Northwest Airlines a ton. And Duluth is the only place... not Minneapolis, not Detroit, not elsewhere... where we run into trouble and are really treated rudely."

Most recently, Jason and Carter were stopped trying to board an NWA flight in Duluth. They were refused permission to board. As a result, they had to drive from Duluth to Minneapolis, where they boarded a plane -- nebulizer in tow -- without incident. Jason had to purchase a one-way ticket from Minneapolis to Detroit at a cost of $520 because he couldn't use his ticket originating in Duluth.

"There’s oxygen on the plane," Jason said he was told by a TSA screener. "What is he so worried about?"

What made the matter worse, Jason said, was that he thought he had the matter worked out a month earlier. On August 8th, Jason ran into a problem at the security checkpoint in Duluth and reached a compromise with the screeners -- the nebulizer would ride up front in the aircraft. If Carter needed it, Jason could reach it in a matter of seconds.

Jason worked on the problem between then and Labor Day. He said he was assured by both NWA and the TSA that there would be no further problem.

But when he showed up on for the Labor Day flight, he was immediately told by a screener that he wouldn't be allowed to carry the nebulizer on board. He showed the screener documentation from the TSA web site that said nebulizers are indeed allowed on commercial flights. But the TSA customer service rep in Duluth said he couldn't -- wouldn't -- override the TSA screener. Carter couldn't fly.

Jason has now filed a discrimination complaint with the TSA.

"It is ridiculous to think that respiratory equipment that passes security inspection at other airports, doesn't pass at Duluth as well. Not to mention the attitudes the employees displayed towards my son and myself," his complaint read.

A spokeswoman for the federal agency said the matter would be investigated with an eye toward forming a more uniform, nationwide policy on the equipment.

"The screeners in this case appear to be following the standard operating procedure... if you can’t see through something then you’re not supposed to let it go. But, in this case, a different and final determination should have been made about this piece of medical equipment," said TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon. "I don’t know all the details, but it sounds like a different decision should have been made and I’m sure we will be looking into this to see what happened and clarify with all screeners how to handle cases like this. It’s not our intent to keep needed medical equipment off a plane."

FMI: www.tsa.gov