Kelly, TSA air cargo chief, buried
| Kelly |
Edward Joseph Kelly III, general manager of air cargo for the Transportation Security Administration, was buried Wednesday at his hometown of Scranton, Pa.
Kelly was responsible for conceiving and developing the agency’s Certified Cargo Screening Program to help meet the congressional mandate to screen 100 percent of cargo moving on passenger aircraft by August 2010.
Kelly, 67, died of Legionnaire’s pneumonia, which he contracted while in Miami three weeks ago to attend the Air Cargo Americas conference, according to an obituary from the funeral home and a colleague. Kelly was in an induced coma at INOVA Alexandria Hospital until his death on Dec. 5.
He joined the TSA after a long career in the air freight industry. Kelly retired in 2000 as vice president and controller of Emery Worldwide, the former air cargo airline once owned by CNF. Kelly, whose cousin died in the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center, came out of retirement several years ago to help the TSA stand up its air cargo security program.
Kelly was the architect of the Certified Cargo Screening Program, a voluntary program designed to encourage shippers and indirect air carriers to screen their own cargo before arrival at the airport to reduce potential backups resulting from airlines doing all the screening. Under CCSP, shipments must be screened at the piece level, meaning that pallets of boxes have to be unpacked, checked and repacked if they have not already been screened prior to arrival at the airport. Companies can use physical searches, X-ray or explosive trace detection machines to conduct the inspections. Shippers who pack and mark their own boxes in secure areas with approved personnel can avoid having their shipments opened by other parties along the supply chain. The TSA certifies facilities to make sure they have the procedures and systems in place to secure cargo from the warehouse floor to the airport.
After developing the broad outlines of a program designed to increase security while minimizing the burden on the air cargo industry, Kelly recruited a team of managers with experience working for air cargo airlines, freight forwarders and cargo handling companies to implement the program and give it credibility in the business world.
Marc Rossi, the CCSP branch chief, said Kelly did a thorough job studying other air cargo security programs and identifying loopholes before aggressively moving to develop the CCSP program. He said Kelly was committed to his work, but behind the scenes was known as a compassionate man who was always lending a hand to help people.
Kelly served in the U.S. Navy before graduating from the University of Scranton in 1967.
Kelly was an avid sailor who once sailed his boat from San Francisco through the Panama Canal to Rhode Island. He met his second wife, journalist Ann Dermody Kelly, through sailing and they were married in 2006 in Castle Durrow in Ireland. They settled in Alexandria, Va., and frequently visited his second home in Lake Ariel, Pa., outside Scranton.
Kelly is also survived by three sons. His wife of more than 30 years, Jane Lavelle Kelly, tragically died from a medical condition suffered while the two were on a cruise in Mexico. ‘ Eric Kulisch