A woman in a wheelchair approached a checkpoint in Oklahoma City this week and took off her trench coat to reveal she was wearing only a black lace bra and panties – and a pearl necklace.
Tammy Banovac, 52, told Newsok.com she chose to wear only her underwear because of an unpleasant experience two weeks ago at airport security.
She said it was typical for her to be hand-searched at airports because she uses a wheelchair, adding that she felt violated by the more invasive searches employed at airports recently.
“If it happened anywhere else, it would have been sexual assault,” Banovac, reported to be a retired surgeon, said.
Airport officials said alarm bells about Banovac were intially sounded when her carry-on luggage and laptop tested positive for nitrates
Authorities said nitrates could be present in medication, or if someone had hunting recently and there were traces of nitrates from the bullets.
They confirmed Banovac was given an ”enhanced” pat down because she was in a wheelchair.
The Transportation Safety Administration said she was not allowed to proceed to her Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix.
She turned up the next day, dressed in the same attire, and was allowed through.
Banovac said she suffered from seizures and uses a service dog warned her before they happen. The Maltese terrier can be seen in her lap in the video below.
San Francisco-based filmmaker John Maringouin was the man who captured Banovac and posted the video on YouTube.
“That was the best thing I ever saw, and I made sure that I got some decent footage of it,” said Maringouin, who said he had never seen met Banovac before. “I had to go almost all the way back into security. Then the TSA guys grabbed me. They thought I was staging it.”
