An explosion blasted a hole into the fuselage of a commercial airplane as it flew over Africa on Tuesday, forcing an emergency landing in Somalia.
Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec, the 64-year-old pilot, told the news service that he had been told a bomb caused the explosion. Other officials told the APthat their investigation hadn’t turned up evidence of a crime.
“It happened at about 11,000 feet,”Vodopivec said. “It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last.”
Daallo Airlines wrote on its Facebook page that a plane operated by Hermes Airlines was headed for Djibouti when there was “an incident shortly after take-off.” The aircraft was carrying 74 passengers, according to the airline.
“The Aircraft landed safely and all of our passengers were evacuated safely,”it said. “A thorough investigation is being conducted by Somalia Civil Aviation Authority.”
But Vodopivec, the pilot, said: “We were told one person was sucked out of the plane, but that is still not confirmed.”
Reuters also reported that a body was “believed to have been sucked out of the plane.”
The AP reported:
Cellphone video taken aboard the plane pans from passengers, some wearing oxygen masks, in seats toward the back of the airliner in flight, and then swivels to the empty front area with a hole in the side of the cabin. There is a loud sound of rushing air. The video was taken by Awale Kullane, Somalia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, and obtained by The Associated Press.
The passengers bunched in the back appear calm. A child wearing an oxygen mask attached to the overhead compartment sits quietly, a blanket covering the legs. Near the hole, oxygen masks dangle and sway from overhead compartments.
“Smoke came into the cockpit, but it was mostly concentrated in the back of the aircraft,” Vodopivec said. “The stewardesses did a great job calming down the passengers and following the emergency procedure.”
“The investigation goes on,” Somalia’s civil aviation director Abdiwahid Omar said, according to Reuters.
