Another two out of around 60 passengers on board were slightly injured.
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In this Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016 photo, a hole is photographed in a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia.
After the explosion, passengers put on oxygen masks and air could be heard rushing thought the hole in the fuselage, according to a video taken by a passenger.
At least 20 people have been arrested in connection with the airline explosion, the spokesman said.
“The passengers were intended for another airline, Turkish Airlines”, Daallo Airlines chief executive officer Mohamed Ibrahim Yasin Olad told AFP. “You can say they are trying to distance themselves from the incident”.
Turkish Airlines, which flies to Somalia three times a week, suspended its flights to the East African country after Tuesday’s incident.
Turkish Airlines so far has not made a comment.
The Airbus A321 belonging to Daallo Airlines was headed for Djibouti. “We have employed a professional security company … to do secondary screening”. “Things will not be the same and security is our priority”.
Transport Minister Jama Jangali told reporters Saturday it was terrorism, not “technical difficulties”, that led to an explosion that ripped a hole about the size of a small door in the plane.
The bomb contained a military grade of the explosive TNT, according to the source, citing an initial analysis of residue recovered from the aircraft.
Passengers were evacuated from the plane by stairs after taxing to a regular parking position, not the usual slide emergency evacuation at a more distant location from the terminal.
“It was a deliberate act of terrorism”.
“The security forces have detained about 20 people suspected of having involved the bomb that exploded inside that plane”, the spokesperson added.
To help the existing probe on a possible suicide attack linked to ISIS, Somalia invited the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Somali intelligence officials investigating a bomb blast on a commercial jet released surveillance footage Sunday appearing to show a passenger being given a laptop in which the bomb was concealed. His badly burnt body was found some 30km outside the Somali capital.
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“This was a sophisticated attack…so we reached out to our global partners”, said Prime Minister Spokesman Abdisalam Aato as reported by CNN.
