'Suicide bomber' on Somalia plane was meant to board Turkish flight

'Suicide bomber' on Somalia plane was meant to board Turkish flight

A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the füselage Of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an

emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, Daallo's chief executive said on Monday.

The bomber was sucked out of the plane through the one-yard-wide hole when the blast ripped open the pressurised cabin in flight,

officials said. The pilot landed the plane in the Somali capital, from where it had taken off.

No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack but US officials suspect Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which has links

to al-Qaida, was responsible for the blast.

Daallo Airlines chief executive, Mohamed Yassin, said most of the passengers who were on the bombed flight were scheduled to

fly with Turkish Airlines, but were flown to Djibouti by one of his planes after the Turkish carrier cancelled its flight, citing bad

weather.

"That particular passenger boarded the aircraft on a Turkish Airlines boarding pass and was on the list for the Turkish Airlines

manifest," Yassin told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.

Yassin said Daallo picked up the 70 stranded Turkish Airlines passengers to fly them to Djibouti, including the suicide bomber. In

total, the flight had 74 passengers.

Footage filmed by a passenger shows the hole in the Somali passenger plane's fuselage after an onboard explosion.

Turkish Airlines spokesman Yahya Ustun confirmed the carrier had cancelled a flight to Mogadishu last week due to bad weather and said the company will not make any further comment.

Somalia, mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991, has few air links outside east Africa. In 2012, Turkish Airlines became the first major international commercial airline to fly out of Somalia in more than two decades.

Mogadishu’s heavily guarded airport has several safety perimeter fences and checkpoints. It houses a large UN compound along with several other Western embassies.

Somali officials said an investigation had been launched and arrests made, including airport workers.

US officials said investigators believe the bomb was hidden in a laptop computer, and that the bomber had some type of connection to airline or airport personnel.

CCTV footage appears to show two airport workers inside the terminal handing the suicide bomber a laptop, according to the government spokesman.

“Some of the people that we have arrested are cooperating,” spokesman Abdisalam Aato told Reuters. He said security at the airport has been stepped up and that the government was seeking new technologies to improve screenings.

Al Shabaab, which wants to topple the government and impose a harsh version of Islamic law, has targeted the airport in the past. It has also attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu.

Yassin said Daallo has been reassured by Somali officials that security was being improved, and will keep flying to Somalia. “We have been there for 25 years,” he said. “Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue.”

Response:  This article is about a man who brought an alleged laptop device that contained explosives onto the plane. This alleged suicide bomber could have killed 74 passengers and done major damage to the plane. This article is obviously biased against Somalia. I thought it was extremely interesting that the airline is going to continue to fly to Somalia to maintain "ties" with them, despite the increasing terrorist threat. It seems almost naive to put all the passengers at risk in order to maintain a tradition. The Turkish airline seems to want to avoid offending Somalia by taking any extreme actions which is understandable, as those actions could potentially increase tensions and violence between Somalia and Turkey. As I said before this article is biased towards Turkey, defending their action and commending their approach to the situation. It also seems to undermine the potential seriousness of this particular event, making the whole situation seem to be totally under control and minor.

citation: " 'Suicide bomber' on Somalia plane was meant to board Turkish flight" 9 Feb. 2016. Guardian News and Media Limited. 9 Feb. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/09/suicide-bomber-on-somalia-plane-was-meant-to-board-turkish-flight>