Explosive Device Left At Airport For 20 Days, State Police Say. Bradley International Airport ( KBDL) Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

WINDSOR LOCKS — An explosive device used to train bomb-sniffing dogs was missing at Bradley International Airport for 20 days last year, according to a report obtained by The Courant.

A state trooper left one of the so-called "training aids" behind on Sept. 2, 2010 while working with a dog before leaving the state for military training, according to an internal affairs report obtained through the Freedom of Information act.

Another trooper noticed that the explosive was missing on Sept. 22, 2010, the report states.

An internal affairs investigator found that Trooper First Class Shawn Swarz failed to properly perform the duties of his position when he failed to return the device, the report states. In the same report, the investigator recommended that the second trooper, Trooper First Class Michael Hearn, be cleared of the allegation.

The report doesn't say if Swarz was disciplined. Swarz, who remains at the Troop W barracks at the airport, declined to comment Monday.

Any reference to the device, or where it was left, was blacked out of the report. But state police have said the device was not in a public area of the airport, nor was it highly explosive.

According to the report, Hearn signed out two explosive training aids on the morning of Sept. 22, 2010. When he returned and went to sign them back in, he realized he had only taken one of the devices.

Hearn checked the sign-up sheet, and the last person to sign them out, Swarz, did so on Sept. 2, 2010, the report states. Hearns looked for the missing device and called Swarz, who was training with the military in South Carolina.

After getting direction from Swarz as to where he might have left the aid, a third canine handler found the device about 11:30 p.m. when he came in for the midnight shift, the report states.

During a Nov. 17 interview with internal affairs investigator Sgt. Ralph Soda, an apologetic Swarz told the investigator that he doesn't know how he lost the aid. It was an accident, he told him.

"…I'll take whatever is coming to me," he said, according to the transcript. "It's a mistake."

The barracks has alerted all staff that troopers who handle bomb-sniffing dogs — the property of the federal Transportation Security Administration — must have a second person witness and verify the removal and return of training explosives, as per TSA rules. The regulation had not been followed because of staff shortages, troopers told Soda.

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