Plane makes emergency landing at Mogadishu

A hole is seen in a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia

An explosion and fire blew a gaping hole in a commercial airliner forcing it to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu's international airport late on Tuesday, officials and witnesses said.
The pilot said he thinks it was a bomb. An aviation expert who looked at photographs of the hole in the fuselage said the damage was consistent with an explosive device.
Two people were slightly injured as 74 passengers and crew of the plane were evacuated after the plane made a safe landing, Somali aviation official Ali Mohamoud said.
It was not certain if all the passengers were accounted for.
The plane, operated by Daallo Airlines and headed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was forced to land minutes after taking off from the Mogadishu airport, said Mohamoud.
"I think it was a bomb," said the Serbian pilot, Vladimir Vodopivec, who was quoted by Belgrade daily Blic. "Luckily, the flight controls were not damaged so I could return and land at the airport. Something like this has never happened in my flight career. We lost pressure in the cabin. Thank God it ended well," the 64-year-old pilot said.
Awale Kullane, Somalia's deputy ambassador to the UN who was on board the flight, said on Facebook that he "heard a loud noise and couldn't see anything but smoke for a few seconds." When visibility returned they realised "quite a chunk" of the plane was missing, he wrote.
Kullane, who was going to Djibouti to attend a conference for diplomats, also posted a video showing some passengers putting on oxygen masks inside the plane. The post was later removed from his Facebook page.
"We don't know a lot, but certainly it looks like a device," said John Goglia, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety and aviation safety expert. There are only two things that could have caused a hole in the plane that looks like the one in photos circulated online - a bomb or a pressurisation blowout caused by a flaw or fatigue in the plane's skin, said Goglia. The photos appear to show black soot around the aircraft skin that is peeled back, said Goglia. A pressurisation blowout wouldn't create soot, but a bomb would, he said.
Also, information about the event posted online indicate it took place during the takeoff phase of flight before the plane reached 30,000 feet, where there is maximum pressurisation, Goglia said. That makes the case for a pressurisation blowout even less likely, he said.
Another passenger, Mohammeed Ali, told that he and others heard a bang before flames opened a gaping hole in the plane's side.
"I don't know if it was a bomb or an electric shock, but we heard a bang inside the plane," he said, adding he could not confirm reports that passengers had fallen from the plane.
 

• MENA