Three top U.S. Transportation Security Administration managers at Pittsburgh International Airport, including Federal Security Director Robert Blose, resigned yesterday as an internal investigation into employee complaints of intimidation, fraud and sexual harassment neared its conclusion.

Blose, Craig Martelle, assistant federal security director of screening, and Bill Rough, deputy assistant federal security director for screening, cited personal reasons.

The resignations came about a week after a peer review board, which included other federal security directors, met to consider findings of an internal affairs investigation and a separate management review involving the three and to make recommendations to TSA leadership, including agency chief David M. Stone.

TSA officials would not say what recommendations the board made or what action, if any, awaited the three had they not resigned.

George Naccara, the TSA northeast area director who has oversight of operations at Pittsburgh International, said the resignations "were not required" and that the three had asked to resign.

Thomas Rice, who had been federal security director at Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio, will serve as acting federal security director in Pittsburgh until a permanent replacement is found. That search could run into the summer.

"My intent is to do it as fast as possible," Naccara said.

Rice was on the job yesterday and met with some TSA staffers at the airport.

Blose, a former Marine colonel who commanded a battalion during the Persian Gulf War, had been federal security director in Pittsburgh since July 2002. Neither he, Martelle nor Rough could be reached for comment after the resignations were announced.

Rough had been on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the review and investigation. Blose and Martelle remained on the job throughout the inquiries.

The scrutiny in Pittsburgh started as a TSA management review and led to an internal affairs investigation, with TSA investigators questioning former and current employees and airport officials.

Investigators focused on allegations ranging from intimidation of employees to sexual harassment.

Naccara said there was no evidence that any of the allegations affected security. "There's never been any compromise of security at the airport," he said.

Internal affairs investigators also looked into allegations of criminal wrongdoing, but found no evidence to support them, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

One TSA employee, Cindy Burns, said she was removed from her job as a payroll officer after she tried to enforce agency policies involving overtime and travel. She also said that Rough would tell her that he loved her and that she had beautiful eyes, and asked why she wasn't married.

"I feel like there's a load off because they're gone, a big load," Burns said yesterday.

However, she said she was angry that the TSA cited personal reasons for the resignations when she believes the managers were forced to resign.

Lillian Bonner, a former administrative assistant to Blose, had written to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and Stone about problems in Pittsburgh. She said she was transferred by Blose from TSA offices at the Airside Business Park in Moon to the airport even though she was not supposed to drive highways because of problems with vertigo. She ended up taking medical leave and is no longer with the TSA.