KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – An 82-year-old Texas woman who was jailed for about two hours after scuffling with an airport security officer in Kansas expressed embarrassment Friday, calling herself a “plain old grandma” who’d forgotten to take her bipolar medication.
The confrontation ensued Wednesday when Transportation Security Administration workers at Eisenhower International Airport in Wichita tried to confiscate Lila Mae Bryan’s bottle of Bath and Body Works foaming hand gel because it exceeded the 3.4 ounce limit.
The TSA said Friday that the 5-foot-2, 120-pound woman walked around an X-ray screening belt early Wednesday morning and assaulted a TSA officer. The officer, 37, was not injured, according to reports.
“I can’t believe I did all that,” Bryan, of Mesquite, said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press, after issuing an apology.
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.