He said that Somali investigators initially tried to put the blame on his airline company.
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“Additional investigations conducted by Somali and global experts have confirmed the explosion that occurred inside the Daallo Airlines (jet) was not a technical problem but was a bomb that was meant to destroy the plane and kill all passengers on board,”Transport and Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jama said”.
Surveillance video appears to have captured the handoff of an explosive-laden laptop from airport workers to a Somali jet passenger who later blew a hole in the side of the craft before he was sucked out the side to his death.
“At least 20 people, including the two men in the CCTV footage who handed over the laptop to the suspected bomber, were arrested in connection with the explosion in the aircraft”, said spokesman Aato.
Mohamed Yassin, Daallo Airlines chief executive, 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 his planes after the Turkish carrier cancelled its flight, citing bad weather.
The aircraft survived the blast, which happened about 15 minutes after take off, but was forced to abort its journey to Djibouti and make an emergency landing at Mogadishu airport.
Investigators suspect he carried a laptop computer with a bomb concealed onto the plane, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
Turkish Airlines is one of the only major worldwide airlines to fly regularly to Mogadishu.
The pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec, blamed the incident on the lack of security at Mogadishu Airport, describing the facility as “chaotic”.
Somalia’s government said it will tighten security at the airport to prevent other threats. The other 74 passengers on the plane were saved after the pilot was able to safely return to the airport. He said the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000 feet and still climbing to its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.
The hole in the Daallo Airlines plane cabin.
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While the Shebab has been East Africa’s longtime Al-Qaeda-affiliate, some factions previous year reportedly split to pledge their allegiance to the Islamic State group.
