A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight.
Mohamed Daallo, the Airline’s Chief Executive, said this on Monday.
The bomber was sucked out of the plane through a one-meter wide hole when the blast ripped open the pressurised cabin in mid-air, officials said.
The report said the pilot landed the plane in the Somali capital, from where it had taken off.
No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack, but a US Government source last week said the United States suspects Islamist militant group, al Shabaab, which is aligned to al Qaeda, was responsible for the blast.
Daallo Airlines said most of the passengers who were on the bombed flight were scheduled to fly with Turkish Airlines, but were ferried to Djibouti by one of its planes after the Turkish carrier cancelled its flight, citing bad weather.
“That particular passenger, who was behind the blast, boarded the aircraft on a Turkish Airlines, a boarding pass and was on the list for the Turkish Airlines manifest,” Yassin told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.
Yassin said Daallo picked up the 70 stranded Turkish Airlines passengers to fly them to Djibouti, including the suicide bomber.
In total, the flight had 74 passengers.
Turkish Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Somalia, mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991, has few air links outside East Africa.
In 2012, Turkish Airlines became the first major international commercial airline to fly out of Somalia in more than two decades.
Meanwhile, Somali security officials have confirmed the arrest of aviation officials they believe planted the bomb that was intended to bring down a Daallo Airlines flight last week.
Sources close to the investigations said on Monday on the condition of anonymity that surveillance cameras captured two men handing over a laptop to another one who boarded the plane.
They quoted the Transport Minister, Ahmed Jama, to have told journalists that investigators had established that a bomb had been planted on the Djibouti bound airline.
The sources said the development came as speculations continued over exactly how the passenger passed the security procedures undetected.
The source disclosed that there were likely indications that the plan was executed by aviation officials at the airport.
The airport has three security screens run jointly by African Union troops, Somali security agents and a Turkish company that runs operations at Mogadishu airport.
Meanwhile, Somali Police Commissioner, General Mohamed Hassan-Hamud, said the attackers used laptop to carry out the attack inside the plane.
Hassan-Hamud said though special experts are still examining the case, yet there were clear indications that a laptop computer was used during the attack inside the plane.
Hamud said more security officers have been deployed to the airport, noting that the officers are under firm instruction to remain vigilant at all times.
The aircraft A321 flight was approximately 15 minutes in the air when the bombing incident happened on February 2, causing a hole in the fuselage.
However, pilots managed to land the aircraft back to Mogadishu Airport safely and without any further incident.
All passengers, except one, disembarked safely after aircraft landed at the airport.
Two passengers suffered minor injuries and they were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Xinhua/NAN.
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