A woman in a wheelchair wearing only her bra and panties in hopes of preventing an intrusive search by Transportation Security Administration employees missed her flight Tuesday at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.

She said TSA told her she couldnâ€™t board her flight after a lengthy search and questioning.

Tammy Banovac, 52, said she chose to wear her underwear because of an unpleasant experience two weeks ago at airport security. She is typically hand-searched at airports because she uses a wheelchair, she said, and she felt violated by the more invasive searches employed at airports recently.

â€œIf it happened anywhere else, it would have been sexual assault.â€

Banovac said she is a retired surgeon and was trying to board a flight to Phoenix on Tuesday when she was pulled aside at security for a more thorough search.

She said TSA employees told her equipment detected traces of nitrates, which are used in bombs, on her clothing and luggage. She said a TSA supervisor told her to leave the airport and â€œcome back tomorrowâ€ after more than an hour of hand searches and questioning.

Oklahoma City-based TSA spokeswoman Kim Wagner said Banovac â€œwent through the screening processâ€ and â€œshe did not catch her flight.â€