Loudoun County, Virginia – The CIA accidentally left behind explosive training material under the hood of a Virginia school bus, CIA and Loudoun County officials said. The material placed there to perfume a training exercise.
During spring break, the CIA performed a routine exercise to train explosive-detecting dogs. Explosive material was placed into the engine compartment of a Loudoun County school bus so the training dogs could detect them. The K-9 unit was able to sniff most of the material but left some behind.
The students then came back to school and rode the buses for 2 days with the explosive material still in it. It wasn’t until a routine inspection that the explosives were detected.
Explosives were too deep to see them
Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde Byard said that even though the dogs were able to successfully find the material in the engine compartment, some of the material fell deeper inside the compartment and beneath the hoses so it was difficult to see.
The school protocol has the drivers check the engines of the buses every day before taking them out on the road, but again, they were not able to spot them as they were too far inside.
After two days of transporting students from home to schools and the way back, the bus was taken for routine maintenance on Wednesday. This kind of routine is usually done to check the spark plugs, hoses and to rotate tires. It was during an inspection that a technician finally discovered the explosive material.
Students were not in danger
The CIA and the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office stressed that the children were not in any immediate danger as the type of explosive used in the exercise needs a special detonator to work.
“The training materials used in the exercises are incredibly stable and according to the CIA and Loudoun County explosive experts, the students on the bus were not in any danger from the training material,” according to a Sheriff’s Office statement.
However, Loudoun County decided to suspend all kind of police training exercise in schools. At least, until a new, more secure, protocol is stated.
Source: Washington Post