Map of Somalia with Aden Adde International Airport (MGQ), Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport (JIB) and Balad, the location where the burnt body was found.
Daallo Airlines Flight 159 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Somali-owned Daallo Airlines. On 2 February 2016, an explosion occurred on board the aircraft 20 minutes after it took off from Mogadishu. The aircraft was able to return to the airport safely with one fatality (likely the bomber). A subsequent investigation indicated that the explosion was caused by a bomb[2][3] detonated in a suicide attack.[4] The Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombing.[5][6][7] A total of ten people were convicted in relation to the plot.[8]
Flight 159’s captain was 64-year-old Serbian Vladimir “Vlatko” Vodopivec; the first officer was 24-year-old Italian Riccardo Bonaldi, he was assigned to fly the aircraft while Captain Vodopivec monitored the aircraft’s instruments.[9] Both pilots were certified to fly and had valid medical licenses.[9]
On 2 February 2016, 20 minutes after taking off from Mogadishu, Somalia,[10] at 11:00 local time, en route to Djibouti City, at an altitude of about 14,000ft (4,300m),[11] an explosion occurred aboard the aircraft, opening a hole in the fuselage behind the R2 door.[12][13] It was reported that day that the explosion was most likely close to seats15/16F, abeam the forward wing root[14] and the fuel tanks.[15] There were 74 passengers and 7 crew on board at the time of the incident.[9]
Reacting to the explosion, flight attendants moved passengers to the rear of the aircraft.[16] The pilots alerted Mogadishu tower, reporting a pressurisation problem, but did not declare an emergency.[17] The aircraft returned to Aden Adde International Airport and performed an emergency landing.[2] There were three injuries on-board, and the burnt body of the suicide bomber fell from the aircraft, landing in the town of Dhiiqaaley near Balad, Somalia;[18] it was found by nearby residents.[19]
The flight had been delayed before departure, so at the time of the explosion the aircraft was not yet at cruising altitude and the cabin was not yet fully pressurized. It was thought that a laptop had been rigged with a timer device to explode the bomb mid-flight.[20][21]
According to Mohamed Ibrahim Yassin Olad, the CEO of Daallo Airlines, the suicide bomber and 69 of the 73 other passengers on board[3] were meant to board a Turkish Airlines flight, which was cancelled on the morning of 2 February due to poor weather conditions. This resulted in Daallo Airlines rerouting the passengers to Djibouti, where they were to be transferred to a Turkish Airlines flight.[22] The cancellation of the Turkish Airlines flight was confirmed by Yahya Ustun, a spokesman for the company.[3]
Investigation
Somalia's Air Accident Investigation Authority (SAAIA) stated on 3 February that one person was missing from the aircraft once it had returned to Mogadishu and later confirmed that the missing person's body was found near Balad.[9] An investigation into the bombing was carried out by the National Intelligence and Security Agency, with the cooperation of airport authorities and local police. Daallo Airlines, in a statement, said that a technical team of Hermes Airlines, the owner of the aircraft, as well as the aircraft's manufacturer, Airbus, played a role in the active investigation.[23] The FBI also contributed its efforts to the investigation.[24]
Initial tests of the damage on Flight159 confirmed traces of explosive residue.[2] It is thought that a bomb, possibly hidden within a laptop,[25] was carried onto the aircraft by a person in a wheelchair. The passenger was believed to have been transferred into a regular seat after being brought onto the plane. Two passengers on the plane, including one who was sitting in the next seat, were arrested on suspicion of being accomplices.[10] On 6February, Transport Minister Ali Ahmed Jama confirmed that the explosion was caused by a bomb that "was meant to kill all onboard."[19][26]
Somali authorities identified the deceased passenger as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, a 55-year-old male from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia,[27] but did not confirm that he was suspected of being the suicide bomber.[28][29][30] Borleh was a teacher at an Islamic school, and said he was going abroad for health reasons according to Sheikh Mohamed Abdullahi, a mosque imam in Mogadishu.[31] A Somali federal official stated that Borleh had been monitored by security agents, "but we had never considered him to be dangerous." A senior Somalia immigration official said that Borleh had obtained a Turkish visa to work in Turkey as an adviser for the foreign ministry. A letter was allegedly sent from the Somali Embassy in Ankara to the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu asking the Turkish Embassy to facilitate a visa for Borleh to be "an adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotions." The Somali Embassy in Ankara denied sending any such letter.[31]
A security camera recording from the airport shows two men, seemingly airport workers,[15] giving a laptop to Borleh.[24][32] US officials have said that investigators believe the bomber had some type of connection to airline or airport personnel.[33]
At least 20 people,[34] including government officials and the two airline employees, were arrested on suspicion of being linked to the attack.[25][35] The Serbian captain, Vlatko Vodopivec, criticised the lack of security around the aircraft at the airport, describing the facility as "chaotic." In an interview with the Associated Press, Vodopivec explained that "the security is zero. When we park there, some 20 to 30 people come to the tarmac ... No one has a badge or those yellow vests. They enter and leave the aircraft, and no one knows who is who... They can put anything inside when passengers leave the aircraft."[34]
Mohamed Ibrahim Yassin Olad, the CEO of Daallo Airlines, stated that the airline would keep flying to Somalia, despite the incident. "We have been there for 25 years," he said. "Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue."[3]
On 13 February, eleven days after the incident, the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, in an email statement, claimed responsibility for the attack stating that it was "retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against the Muslims of Somalia."[5] Al-Shabaab also said that it targeted Turkish Airlines because Turkey is a NATO state supporting Western operations in Somalia[6] and that they were targeting Western intelligence officials and Turkish NATO soldiers who were on board.[7]
Criminal convictions
On 30 May 2016, a Somali military court found two men guilty of planning the plot and of being members of al-Shabaab and sentenced them to life in prison. One of the two men was a former security official at the airport and the other, who financed the attack, had eluded arrest and was tried in absentia.[36] Eight other airport workers were convicted of aiding the plot, but were not convicted of being members of al-Shabaab, and were given prison sentences ranging from six months to four years.[8] They had a number of roles at the airport including security screeners, a police officer, a porter, and immigration officers.[36]
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1993.
Daallo Airlines is a Somali-owned airline based at Dubai Airport Free Zone in Al Garhoud, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The airline operates scheduled services in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.
Jubba Airways is a Somali airline that operates domestic passenger and cargo flights within Somalia, as well as to destinations in the Middle East.
Somali Airlines was the flag carrier of Somalia. Established in 1964, it offered flights to both domestic and international destinations. It operated Boeing 720Bs, Boeing 707-300s and Airbus A310-300s on a network to the Middle East and Europe. The airline discontinued operations in 1991 after the start of the Somali civil war.
Kogalymavia, DBA Metrojet, was a Russian airline based in Kogalym, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. Its home base was at Kogalym International Airport, with the main hub at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow. It suspended all operations in December 2015, two months after the terrorist attack on Flight 9268.
Aden Adde International Airport, formerly known as Mogadishu International Airport, is an international airport serving Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. It is named after Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, the first President of Somalia.
Trans World Airlines Flight 840 was a regularly scheduled international flight from Los Angeles to Cairo via New York City, Rome, and Athens on April 2, 1986. About 20 minutes before landing in Athens, a bomb was detonated on the aircraft while it was over Argos, Greece, blasting a hole in the plane's starboard side. Four passengers died after being blown out, while another seven were injured by flying shrapnel and debris. The aircraft then made a successful emergency landing with no further loss of life.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 2007.
Two large-scale attacks against AMISOM soldiers carried out by al-Shabaab suicide bombers in Mogadishu, Somalia occurred in 2009. In total 32 people, including 28 AMISOM soldiers, were killed and 55 people were injured.
The 2011 Mogadishu bombing occurred on 4 October 2011, when a suicide bomber drove a truck into the gate of the Transitional Federal Government's ministerial complex in Mogadishu, Somalia. The resulting explosion killed 100 people and injured over 110 others. Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack is reported to be the largest since Al-Shabaab launched an insurgency in Somalia in early 2007. It also follows the withdrawal of Al-Shabaab's forces from the area in August after an AMISOM intervention to bring aid to the country during a season of drought.
On 9 August 2013, an Antonov An-24 operated by the Ethiopian Air Force crashed while attempting to land at Aden Abdulle International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. There were six crew on board, of which four perished and two survived with injuries.
Metrojet Flight 9268 was an international chartered passenger flight operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia. On 31 October 2015, at 06:13 local time EST, the Airbus A321-231 operating the flight exploded above the northern Sinai Peninsula following its departure from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Egypt en route to Pulkovo Airport, Saint Petersburg, Russia. All 224 passengers and crew on board died. The cause of the crash was most likely an onboard explosive device as concluded by Russian investigators.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 2017.
This is a 2016 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
This is a 2017 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
This is a 2018 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
On 18 January 2020, a suicide car bombing killed four and injured at least 20 others in Afgooye, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Most of the casualties were police officers protecting Turkish contractors building a road. The al-Qaeda-linked extremist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is a 2022 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
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