A woman who was held at the Regina airport for six hours after her laptop was deemed a possible security threat says she wants an apology and her destroyed computer replaced.

Tracey Britton was going through security screening to take a flight Peru on Monday to attend her father’s wedding when her laptop was flagged as a suspicious item. Britton says she brought the laptop through the same screening area during a trip to Toronto two months ago and didn't have any problems.

The suspicious item prompted officials at the airport to close off the second floor of the airport and relocate all passengers to the main floor. Police, including a bomb squad, were called in and Britton says an officer began questioning her.

“He (said), ‘is there anything you want to tell me that might be in this laptop?’ And I just kind of look at him and I’m like, no. Like what do you mean? What’s going on?” Britton said.

“He took my phone, he went through all my personal information on my phone, scanned all my emails, all my messaging, everything.”

Britton says after she had been held in the screening area for about two hours, she was escorted to a room downstairs, where she says she was detained for another three-and-a-half hours and questioned further by police.

“At one point, the question even came up if I had, in the past few months, visited any terrorist websites,” Britton said.

“I’m like, OK, this is kind of really getting serious here. I’m really starting to get scared, a little bit worried.”

Britton says an officer told her she was being detained while police investigated. She says she had already been held for several hours before the officer informed her of her right to call a lawyer.

“I’m just like, are you F-ing kidding me?” Britton said.

“They never really even said at the beginning that I was being held for anything. They just kept moving me around… At that point, when he asked me about the lawyer, I lost it.”

Britton says the officer later told her the bomb squad had detonated the laptop after taking it to a remote location, but that police managed to save the hard drive. The officer told her no charges would be laid because nothing was found in her computer, she said.

Britton says another officer and two Air Canada representatives told her she could not continue with her flight because she would still be banned by the airline until she was officially cleared by police.

“The investigating officers had to sign off on their investigation, which they did, basically stating that it was unwarranted and I was deemed not a threat,” Britton said.

“It had to be on paper. Apparently, Air Canada had to see that visual piece of paper signed off, stating that I was no longer a threat.”

Britton says she learned through police that organic material had been found in her laptop and a cylindrical piece at the back of the computer had two wires in it that resembled a detonator.

She says Air Canada initially told her she would be charged a change fee and a fare difference fee, but in the end, an airline representative rebooked the flights at no extra cost.

Britton says she has a flight to Peru booked for Wednesday, and she plans to attend her father’s wedding on Dec. 18, after missing two days of her vacation.

Britton says she was humiliated and wants a formal public apology and a replacement laptop.

“They’ve been on the news saying that they did a good job and they handled it very well,” she said. “Well, from my point of view, they didn’t handle it very well.”