Officials Say It Was A Deliberate Act Of Terror

The suspected suicide bomber who apparently detonated a crude device aboard a Daallo Airlines flight from Mogadishu to Djibouti had originally been booked on a Turkish Airlines flight, according to the head of Daallo Airlines.

Al Jazeera reports that the Turkish Airlines flight on which the suspected bomber and 73 others were originally booked was cancelled because the incoming flight could not come to Mogadishu due to "strong winds," according to Mohamed Ibrahim Yasin Olad, Daallo Airlines chief. Turkish Airlines asked Daallo to accommodate the passengers to Djibouti, where they would transfer to a Turkish Airlines aircraft, he said.

When the bomb detonated, it blew a three-foot wide hole in the fuselage of the Airbus A321 at about 11,000 feet. The suspected bomber was apparently pulled out of the airplane by the decompression, but everyone else on board survived.

Olad said Turkish Airlines has not been in contact with Daallo since the incident. "You can say they are trying to distance themselves from the incident," he said. Turkish airlines suspended its flights to Somalia last week.

Olad said Daallo was working with the Somali government to beef up security on the airline, which is Djibouti's national carrier.

Somali Minister for Transport Ali Ahmed Jama Jangeli said at a news conference Saturday that the explosion was a "deliberate terror attack" and not caused by some technical failure. He called the device "crude," but stressed that the intent was to "harm the passengers on the plane."

The person said to be pulled from the airplane during the decompression was Abdullahi Abbdisalam Borleh, a Somali national. His body, badly burned, was reportedly found about 18 miles from the Somali capital, according to Al Jazeera. No one has claimed responsibility for the action.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.scama.so