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| Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec, the pilot who had landed a jetliner in Somalia with a large hole on its fuselage speaks, during an interview with The Associated Press in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. Vodopivec says he has never doubted it was caused by a bomb and described the security at Mogadishu airport as "zero." |
MOGADISHU,
Somalia (AP) -- Security video footage taken at Mogadishu airport
shows two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to the
suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security
checkpoint, Somalia's government spokesman said Sunday.
At
least one of the men delivering the laptop was an airport employee,
government spokesman Abdisalam Aato told The Associated Press.
The
man who received the laptop is the suspected suicide bomber who was
blown from the Daallo Airlines jet on Tuesday creating a gaping hole in
the fuselage and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing back at
the Mogadishu airport. It is believed the laptop-like device was the
bomb that caused the explosion. The plane's pilot said that if the
explosion happened when the aircraft was at a higher altitude it could
have caused the jet to crash.
"At least 20
people, including the two men in the CCTV footage who handed over the
laptop to the suspected bomber, were arrested in connection with the
explosion in the aircraft," said spokesman Aato.
"It
was a deliberate act of terrorism," he said. "Investigations are still
ongoing." Somalia's government has said it will tighten security at the
airport to prevent other threats.
The CCTV
video shows two men, one in a bright orange airport security vest,
handing a laptop-like bag to a passenger waiting to board.
The video of the apparent security lapse at the airport fits with the description of lax security by the pilot of the plane.
"The security is zero," pilot Vlatko Vodopivec told AP.
"When
we park (the plane) there, some 20 to 30 people come to the tarmac,"
said Vodopivec, a veteran pilot who has made numerous flights to the
airport. "No one has a badge or those yellow vests. They enter and leave
the plane, and no one knows who is who ... They can put anything inside
when passengers leave the aircraft."
The
explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane, with 75 passengers
on board, took off from the airport and was at 11,000 feet (3,500
meters) ascending toward 31,000 feet.
"When we
went past 10,000 feet, we switched off the fasten belts sign and the
cabin crew started serving passengers," Vodopivec said in an interview
in Belgrade. "When we climbed past 11,000 feet, it exploded.
At first, I
thought it was a window breaking. However, we soon sensed the smell of
the explosives when smoke came rushing into the cockpit.
"All
lasted very shortly," he said. "We immediately demanded an emergency
return to the airport because that was the only solution. With a heavy
heart, because there the security is minimal and we had to remain there
for a couple of days afterward."
If the
explosion happened at a higher altitude, the hole in the fuselage might
have caused more severe structural damage, he said.
"If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the explosion," Vodopivec said.
Because
the plane was at a lower altitude, he was able to land safely, he said.
"The plane acted normally and we virtually returned normally. Engines
and hydraulics worked normally."
The explosion
killed one passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, according to Somali
officials who did not give further details. A man's body was found in
the town of Balad, 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu,
according to police who said he might have been blown from the plane.
Borle
is suspected to have been the suicide bomber, the AP was told by a
senior Somali civil aviation official, who insisted on anonymity because
he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
Somalia
faces an insurgency from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which
has carried out deadly attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries.
Daallo
Airlines, which is based in Dubai, has temporarily suspended its
operations in Somalia's capital following the incident but hopes to
restart them soon, said Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, the airline's chief
executive.
Vodopivec also highlighted
additional security concerns in the Somali capital, including some
planes that are struck by gunfire on approach to the airport.
"You
can land at the airport only from the seaside," he said. "On the other
side of the runway is the city. Bigger planes don't land over the city
because of security concerns. Some planes landed with bullet holes in
their fuselage."
