Daallo Airlines flight D3159, an Airbus A321 flying from Mogadishu International Airport to Djibouti, with 81 passengers and crew on board, was forced to turn back shortly after take-off after what is believed to have been an onboard explosion at approximately 10,000ft. It is also understood that as a result of the explosion, which left a gaping hole in the plane immediately above the leading edge of the starboard wing, one passenger, described as being “on fire”, was sucked out. The charred body of an elderly man who was said to have fallen from the plane was reported as having been found by residents, according to Mohamed Hassan, a police officer in nearby Balad town. As the investigation is ongoing, nothing is as yet fully confirmed
Initial speculation narrowed the cause down to either an explosive device, or failure of the aircraft’s skin which caused a pressurization blowout. As the plane had only reached an altitude of 10,000ft a blowout is felt to be the less likely cause, while the plane’s pilot, Vladimir Vodopivec, is quoted as saying: “I think it was a bomb. Luckily, the flight controls were not damaged so I could return and land at the airport. We lost pressure in the cabin. Thank God it ended well.” Two passengers were reported as having suffered minor injuries, while one passenger is officially reported as missing.
Daallo Airlines runs scheduled flights to Djibouti, Mogadishu, Dubai, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Hargeisa in Somaliand, and Nairobi in Kenya. The Daallo Airlines plane is one of two A321-200s owned by Greek charter airline Hermes Airlines, which is based in Alimos. As a consequence, the incident is being investigated by a Hermes technical team in close coordination with Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority, Airbus and the Civil Aviation authority in Mogadishu. This is the first fatal incident involving a Daallo Airlines aircraft in over 25 years of the airline’s operation.
Erratum: In yesterday’s reporting there were errors in the article relating to the report issued concerning TransAsia flight 222 where in several places, including the headline, we erroneously stated it was AirAsia flight 222. We would like to take this opportunity and apologise to our readers for these errors.
