The Airbus A321 plane, operated by Dubai-based Daallo Airlines and headed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was forced to land minutes after taking off from the Mogadishu airport, Somali aviation official Ali Mohamoud said.
Authorities in the Balcad region, about 19 miles north of Mogadishu, later said they found the body of a man believed to have been sucked out of the plane, Reuters reports.
"The dead body of the passenger is being transported to Mogadishu," a police officer at the Mogadishu airport said. "He dropped when the explosion occurred in the plane.”
Passengers have reported that after the blast at 11,000 feet, a man with burning clothes was sucked out of a hole in the fuselage.
Somalia's civil aviation director, Abdiwahid Omar, also said a person was missing after the plane landed and the body had been found, according to Reuters. The police officer said the man was around 55 years old.
Daallo Airlines confirmed Wednesday that one passenger is missing, while the Somali Aviation Authority chief said they have not yet established what caused the blast.
"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.
Vodopivec went on to say that fortunately the flight controls were not damaged, so he was able to return to Mogadishu’s airport and make an emergency landing. He also claimed authorities have told him it was most probably a bomb.
An aviation expert who looked at photographs of the hole in the fuselage said the damage was consistent with an explosive device, according to The Associated Press.
Two people were slightly injured as 74 passengers and crew of the plane were evacuated after the plane made a safe landing, Mohamoud said.
Security at the Mogadishu airport is normally extremely tight as the terror group Al-Shabaab controls territory within sight of the airport and under the flight path for departing aircraft.
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A321-111 with the rego SX-BHS (CN 642) this aircraft is just over 19yrs old and was first registered to Swiss Air as HB-IOG on the 21st January 1997.
Daallo Airlines took delivery of this aircraft as a lease from Hermes Airlines on the 6th January 2014. The flight number was D3159.
"The dead body of the passenger is being transported to Mogadishu," a police officer at the Mogadishu airport said. "He dropped when the explosion occurred in the plane.”
Passengers have reported that after the blast at 11,000 feet, a man with burning clothes was sucked out of a hole in the fuselage.
Somalia's civil aviation director, Abdiwahid Omar, also said a person was missing after the plane landed and the body had been found, according to Reuters. The police officer said the man was around 55 years old.
Daallo Airlines confirmed Wednesday that one passenger is missing, while the Somali Aviation Authority chief said they have not yet established what caused the blast.
"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.
Vodopivec went on to say that fortunately the flight controls were not damaged, so he was able to return to Mogadishu’s airport and make an emergency landing. He also claimed authorities have told him it was most probably a bomb.
An aviation expert who looked at photographs of the hole in the fuselage said the damage was consistent with an explosive device, according to The Associated Press.
Two people were slightly injured as 74 passengers and crew of the plane were evacuated after the plane made a safe landing, Mohamoud said.
Security at the Mogadishu airport is normally extremely tight as the terror group Al-Shabaab controls territory within sight of the airport and under the flight path for departing aircraft.
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A321-111 with the rego SX-BHS (CN 642) this aircraft is just over 19yrs old and was first registered to Swiss Air as HB-IOG on the 21st January 1997.
Daallo Airlines took delivery of this aircraft as a lease from Hermes Airlines on the 6th January 2014. The flight number was D3159.
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