A suicide bomber strapped into a wheelchair may have been behind the mid-flight explosion on board a Somalian plane, a Western diplomat said.
Investigators believe the explosive-loaded man’s wheelchair allowed him to skirt around airport security and get onto the passenger jet with the bomb, a source told the Wall Street Journal.
The blast — which went off just minutes after the flight took off from Mogadishu’s airport Tuesday — blew a hole in the cabin and ejected the alleged bomber, sending him plummeting to the ground below.
Investigators believe the Al-Shabaab militant group is behind the attack, an American source told Reuters.
Somalia’s investigators have insisted that there are no signs of criminal activity, but two U.S. government sources said on Wednesday that initial forensic testing detected possible traces of the explosive TNT on the aircraft. More tests are underway.
Al-Shabaab, the Al Qaeda-linked militant group behind numerous terror attacks in Eastern Africa, has not claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Passenger Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh was killed by the blast on the Daallo Airlines plane, carrier officials said. Somalian officials have not named him a suspect in the explosion.
Local authorities north of Mogadishu said the body of a man — believed to have been sucked out through the hole in the fuselage made by the blast — was found in their area.
U.S. investigators believe the body belongs to the suspected bomber, but Somalian officials have not commented on his possible identity.
Two more people were injured in the explosion, which went off just minutes after the commercial plane carrying 74 passengers and crew members left the ground. The jet made an emergency landing back at Mogadishu’s airport.
Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec, the pilot, said he and others were told the explosion was caused by a bomb.
“It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last,” Vodopivec said, adding that the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000 feet and still climbing to its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.
“It would have been much worse if we were higher,” he said.
Daallo Airlines, which did not refer to a blast, said on its website that the “incident” that caused a hole in the fuselage happened 15 minutes into the flight.
“Pilots managed to land the aircraft back (at) Mogadishu Airport safely and without any further incident. All passengers, except one, disembarked safely,” it said, adding there was an investigation into “the cause of one missing passenger.”
Daallo Airlines said in a statement that the Airbus A321 was operated by Hermes Airlines, based in Athens, Greece.
Hermes’ main business is leasing planes to other carriers that are staffed and serviced by its crew. Its fleet includes four A321s, one Airbus A320 and one Boeing 737, according to its website.
Investigators from Somalia and Greece are conducting the inquiry, Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, CEO of Daallo Airlines, said. Daallo will continue to operate while the investigation is carried out, he added.
On Dec. 11, 1994, a bomb on a Philippine Airlines jet with 293 people aboard blew a 2-foot hole in the floor leading to the cargo hold, but the pilot was able to make a safe emergency landing. One passenger was killed and 10 others were injured on the Manila-to-Japan flight.
Ramzi Yousef, who was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, was convicted in the bombing of the Philippine Airlines flight.
With News Wire Services
