TSA K-9 Agent at Newark airport dies of COVID-19, becoming agency’s first casualty
Newark NJ April 7 2020
The Transportation Security Administration has lost one of its own to the novel coronavirus: Francis “Frank” Boccabella III, who worked as an explosive detection canine handler at Newark Liberty International Airport died Thursday, the agency said.
“He is the first federal TSA employee who we have lost to COVID-19,” the agency said in a release posted to its website Friday.
“The news of this loss strengthens our determination to work ever more closely with our interagency partners to stop the spread of COVID-19.”
Boccabella, 39, joined TSA in 2004, screening cargo at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and later moved to Newark to work as a compliance officer before joining the canine handler team.
“Frank was dedicated to protecting the traveling public with his canine partner, Bullet, a 6-year-old German Short-haired Pointer and his previous canine partner, Zmay,” the release noted. “Frank and his canine partners screened hundreds of thousands of passengers, keeping them and the transportation network safe.”
Boccabella, whose last day at work before becoming sick was March 19, was one of five TSA officers from Newark and one of 81 TSA workers across the country to contract COVID-19 in the past 14 days.
Despite the fact that screening officers must come into close contact with passengers to do their jobs, at least one sick officer says he’s been been denied a COVID-19 test three times.
“When we have to pat somebody down, you can’t do it from six feet away,” Brian Shoup, a 17-year TSA veteran based at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee, said.
“We’re pretty much out there and exposed.”
