CIA Operatives Accidentally Left Explosives On School Bus

This is bound to blow up somebody’s spot.

Everyone who ever had a school-age, bus-riding kid knows how children can be forgetful and leave things behind on the bus. Those kids can feel a little better about such minor goofs now because the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) outdid 4th graders whose ADHD meds wore off too early big time recently by leaving explosives on a working school bus. 

The Washington Post reported the snafu occurred after the CIA used the Loudoun County, VA school bus to test bomb-sniffing dogs that were still in training. A putty-like plastic explosive was forgotten under the hood of the test bus while it carried passengers on March 28 and 29:

As part of last week’s training exercise, CIA trainers placed explosive material into the engine compartment of a school bus on Thursday to test a dog’s ability to sniff it out. They also placed the material in parts of the school. [Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde] Byard said the dog successfully found the material in the engine compartment, but some of the material fell deeper inside the compartment and became wedged beneath the hoses.

He said school bus drivers check under the hoods of their buses before they take them out on the road, but the package was wedged too far deep inside the engine compartment and was the same color as the hoses, so it could not easily be seen.

It was actually okay, though—just fine. The explosives, which the CIA asked Loudoun officials not to name, were essentially inert. They are considered stable and require a special kind of detonator to set them off. 

It wasn’t a good look for the CIA regardless, as the Post reported it took a school bus tech performing “a routine inspection” to find the explosive material. 

So no harm, no foul, maybe. But maybe the CIA should consider using decommissioned buses next time, we’re just saying.

h/t Washington Post