A B.C. man with a titanium hip wasn’t allowed to board his plane when an all-female security team refused to frisk him.

Robert Hart, from Terrace, B.C., was heading to Ontario with his wife on July 27 for a family wedding when his titanium hip — and the airport staff — derailed his plans.

Hart knew he’d trigger the metal detector, and made a joke of it when he approached the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) employee holding the hand-wand.

“I went beep,” he said.

But instead of playing along, she told him to change his plans.

“‘I’m sorry you’re going to have to take another flight,’” she said.

The woman refused to do a pat-down on a person of the opposite sex, and said he’d have to wait until one of two male security agents (one of whom was on vacation) could return to the Northwest Regional Airport.

Hart protested — couldn’t someone else do it, like an RCMP agent or an Air Canada employee, he asked. Couldn’t his wife supervise? No, no and no. What amazed Hart is that he knew some of the agents from the small-town airport personally. (Terrace has a population of about 11,000.)

“You know me, our kids went to school together,” he pleaded. “You know I’ve been doing a physiotherapy on my hip, you know that story.”

In the end, Hart and his wife had to get on the next flight, which in total added about another nine hours to his trip. Air Canada, he said, did not charge him extra.

“We made the wedding, we had a little bit of fudge time. Didn’t miss anything but sleep!,” he said.

A spokesperson for CATSA said what happened the Northwest Regional Airport was a mistake and that the organization is sorry. There is a policy that says security agents should be of the same sex, but in the event that someone of the same sex can’t be found, whatever agent is on hand must screen the passengers.

“These procedures were not followed in that case,” CATSA spokesperson Mathieu Larocque said.

Larocque said that he’s never heard of something like this happening before. While it’s easy to find same-sex staff in larger airports, Larocque said small hubs may just not have the staff to always serve customers with a same-sex security agent.

“For most airports it’s not an issue,” Larocque said.

As a result of what happened in Terrace, CATSA is reminding staff there and across the country that all passengers must be screened. CATSA has also offered to reimburse Hart for any additional expenses occurred.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Hart is happy with CATSA’s response and is glad this won’t happen to another hapless traveler.

“This is an issue in lots of small-town airports,” he said.