TSA Allegedly Denies Mute Stroke Victim from Flying

A woman named Sherry Wright is claiming that the TSA turned away her disabled sister from boarding a flight because the mute flyer could not speak with the agent. The NY Post reports that Sherry’s sister, Heidi, is wheelchair-bound and incapable of speaking due to a stroke.

According to the NY Post, Heidi was attempting to go through security and get on a flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix. Sherry claims that a TSA agent stopped Heidi because she had an expired driver’s license, and that the agent would not accept the Social Security card and DMV papers for identification. Sherry says, “He just wanted me to make my sister talk, and I couldn’t believe it… I was just standing there, tears were coming out and I was like, ‘Are you serious? We can’t get her to talk.'”

Since Heidi was not allowed on her flight, she instead had to take an eight-hour bus trip to reach Phoenix.

TSA representative Nico Melendez discussed the incident with ABC News, stating, “I think it could have been handled differently by the TSA and it probably could have been handled differently by the family, and hopefully moving forward the family won’t have this problem again, because they know about the programs that we have in place.”

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