An airline passenger was apparently sucked to his death through the side of the fuselage when a blast tore through the cabin
The Times
Jerome Starkey, Africa Correspondent
An airline passenger was apparently sucked to his death through the side of the aircraft when a blast tore through the cabin of a flight from the Somali capital.
The explosion on the Daallo Airlines flight from Mogadishu to Djibouti took place shortly after take-off on Tuesday. The aircraft was at about 11,000ft (3,350m). The pilot turned around immediately and landed safely.
“It was my first bomb, I hope it will be the last,” said Mr Vodopivec, 64, who is from Serbia. “Luckily the flight controls were not damaged so I could return and land at the airport.”
A statement from the airline said: “All passengers, except one, disembarked safely after the aircraft landed at the airport and currently investigations are under way to ascertain the cause of one missing passenger.”
Police in Balad, about 30km north of Mogadishu, found the body of an elderly man who they thought had fallen out of the aircraft but airport officials refused to confirm whether he was the missing passenger. Two other passengers were injured.
Officials at Somalia’s aviation authority said that they had found no evidence of any criminal activity and that the cause of the blast was still being investigated. (Read more...)