Mid-air explosion forces pilot to perform emergency landing

[webfact]

Did 'bomb' on plane cause mid-air explosion which left gaping hole in cabin?
BY SOPHIE EVANS

Source Internet

Incredibly, the pilot managed to perform an emergency landing after the blast, which police are treating as 'suspicious'

LONDON: -- Passengers on a Daallo Airlines flight are being quizzed after a mystery explosion blasted a gaping hole in the plane while it was thousands of feet in the air.

Flight D3159, travelling from Somalia to Djibouti, caught fire just five minutes after taking off from Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu this morning.

As flames and smoke filled the cabin, the jet turned around and incredibly managed to perform an emergency landing at the Raas Cabaad-based airport.

It was met on the tarmac by emergency crews, who were shocked to see a massive hole in the fuselage on the aircraft's right hand side, just behind its R2 door.

Full story: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/daallo-airlines-flight-d3159-explosion-7292260?

-- MIRROR 2016-02-03

Daallo Airlines Plane flying with Hole in its Side Fuselage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph62F8U2yl4

[F430murci]

Dayum. Crazy!

Edited February 2, 2016 by F430murci

[ezzra]

" Somalia to Djibouti " that's said it all, I don't think that a sane person will fly from-to those destinations where everyone is carrying some king of war weapon, so explosion on board an aircraft should be considered as part of everyday risks in those parts of the world....

[webfact]

Explosion forces plane to make emergency landing in Somalia
By ABDI GULED

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — An explosion and fire blew a gaping hole in a commercial airliner forcing it to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu's international airport late Tuesday, officials and witnesses said.

The pilot said he thinks it was a bomb. An aviation expert who looked at photographs of the hole in the fuselage said the damage was consistent with an explosive device.

Two people were slightly injured as 74 passengers and crew of the plane were evacuated after the plane made a safe landing, Somali aviation official Ali Mohamoud said. It was not certain if all the passengers were accounted for.

The plane, operated by Daallo Airlines and headed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was forced to land minutes after taking off from the Mogadishu airport, said Mohamoud.

"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.

Awale Kullane, Somalia's deputy ambassador to the U.N. who was on board the flight, said on Facebook that he "heard a loud noise and couldn't see anything but smoke for a few seconds." When visibility returned they realized "quite a chunk" of the plane was missing, he wrote.

Kullane, who was going to Djibouti to attend a conference for diplomats, also posted a video showing some passengers putting on oxygen masks inside the plane. The post was later removed from his Facebook page.

"We don't know a lot, but certainly it looks like a device," said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety and aviation safety expert. There are only two things that could have caused a hole in the plane that looks like the one in photos circulated online — a bomb or a pressurization blowout caused by a flaw or fatigue in the plane's skin, said Goglia.

The photos appear to show black soot around the aircraft skin that is peeled back, said Goglia. A pressurization blowout wouldn't create soot, but a bomb would, he said.

Also, information about the event posted online indicate it took place during the takeoff phase of flight before the plane reached 30,000 feet, where there is maximum pressurization, Goglia said. That makes the case for a pressurization blowout even less likely, he said.

Another passenger, Mohamed Ali, told The Associated Press that he and others heard a bang before flames opened a gaping hole in the plane's side.

"I don't know if it was a bomb or an electric shock, but we heard a bang inside the plane," he said, adding he could not confirm reports that passengers had fallen from the plane.

Although the Somali aviation official said that there were only two injuries, there were unverified reports that a person fell out of the hole. Mohamed Hassan, a police officer in nearby Balad town, said residents had found the dead body of an old man who might have fallen from a plane. Balad is an agricultural town 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu.

Somalia faces an insurgency perpetrated by the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which is responsible for many deadly attacks across the nation.
___

AP writers Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade and Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-03

[Stargeezr]

I am sure glad the pilot was able to land the jet after that explosive.that that caused the hole in the window that is an impressive hole, caused by what ever did it. Must have been a lot of scared people on that flight.

[i claudius]

I reckon the guys underpants exploded and he got sucked out , lucky it was so early in the flight

[Forethat]

This sounds familiar...

I dont even feel like a tinfoil hat when I point out that the position of the bomb, close to fuel tanks, is probably not a coincidence.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3330353/Bomb-took-Russian-plane-Egypt-hidden-seats-30A-31A-equal-kilo-TNT-according-Moscow.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Airlines_Flight_434

[Mr Money Bags]

I always wear my seat belt while seated on the plane.

One more reason why......

You're Welcome!!

[colinneil]

Luckily they were not at 35.000 feet, or it would have been a very different outcome.

[webfact]

Pilot recounts blast on jet, emergency return to Mogadishu
By ABDI GULED and DUSAN STOJANOVIC

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — An explosion that blew a hole in a jetliner shortly after takeoff and left one man missing was believed to have been caused by a bomb, the pilot said Wednesday, describing how the crew calmed frightened passengers as smoke enveloped the cabin before he brought the plane back to Mogadishu's airport for an emergency landing.

Residents of Balad, a town 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu, found the body of a man who might have been blown out of the Airbus 321 in Tuesday's blast, said police officer Mohamed Hassan.

Abdiwahid Omar, the director of Somalia's civil aviation authority, told state-run Radio Mogadishu that authorities were not sure if the body was the missing passenger.

Government officials also said no evidence had been found so far of a criminal act.

Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, CEO of Daallo Airlines, did not rule out that a bomb planted on the aircraft was responsible.

"At this stage, everything is possible. We cannot rule out anything at this stage," Yassin told The Associated Press.

No group claimed responsibility for the blast. Somalia faces an insurgency from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has carried out many deadly attacks across the nation.

Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec, the pilot, said he and others were told the explosion was caused by a bomb.

"It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last," Vodopivec told the AP by phone from Mogadishu. He said the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) and still climbing to its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.

"It would have been much worse if we were higher," he added.

Had the blast occurred at a higher altitude, it could have led to explosive decompression on the plane, which might have caused more severe structural damage, and would have forced a more rapid descent because of limited supplies of oxygen to the passengers.

Daallo Airlines said all passengers except one got off the plane safely. It previously said the plane, which was headed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, carried 74 passengers.

Yassin acknowledged that signs pointed to the possibility a passenger was sucked from the plane at the time of the blast.

"Maybe one person fell out of the hole. But nothing is sure," he said from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where the airline has its commercial offices.

Cellphone video taken during the flight showed passengers, some wearing oxygen masks, sitting toward the back of the jet, with empty seats in the front of the cabin near the hole in the fuselage. A loud sound of rushing air could be heard on the video, which was shot by Awale Kullane, Somalia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations.

The passengers bunched in the back appeared calm. A child wearing an oxygen mask sat quietly, partially covered by a blanket. Near the hole, oxygen masks dangled and swayed from overhead compartments.

"When we heard a loud bang, the co-pilot went back to the cabin to inspect the damage, and I took over the commands as the procedure demands," the Serbian pilot told AP, adding that the engines and hydraulics functioned normally so he had no problem flying the aircraft back to Mogadishu.

"Smoke came into the cockpit, but it was mostly concentrated in the back of the aircraft," he said by phone. "The stewardesses did a great job calming down the passengers and following the emergency procedure."

The flight crew included an Italian co-pilot, with two flight attendants from Greece, two from Kenya and one from Bosnia, he said.

Kullane said in a social media post that he "heard a loud noise and couldn't see anything but smoke for a few seconds." When visibility returned, he realized "a chunk" of the plane was missing.

"I think for the first few seconds and minutes ... I was terrified and most people were terrified," he said. "Of course, we give credit to the pilot who landed that plane."

Daallo Airlines said in a statement posted on Facebook that the Airbus A321 was operated by Hermes Airlines, based in Athens, Greece.

Hermes' main business is leasing planes to other carriers that are staffed and serviced by its crew to other carriers. Its fleet includes four A321s, one Airbus A320 and one Boeing 737, according to its website.

Investigators from Somalia and Greece are conducting the inquiry, Yassin said. Daallo will continue to operate while the investigation is carried out, he added.

On Dec. 11, 1994, a bomb on a Philippine Airlines jet with 293 people aboard blew a 2-foot (0.61-meter) hole in the floor leading to the cargo hold, but the pilot was able to make a safe emergency landing. One passenger was killed and 10 others were injured on the Manila-to-Japan flight.

The plane was flying at about 33,000 feet (10,058 meters) when the blast occurred, and it landed about an hour later on Okinawa in southern Japan.

Ramzi Yousef, who was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, was convicted in the bombing of the Philippine Airlines flight.
___

Stojanovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia. Associated Press writer Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-04

[lostmebike]

Saw a video on BBC news this morning. Looked absolutely terrifying.

[lostmebike]

I reckon the guys underpants exploded and he got sucked out , lucky it was so early in the flight

Let's hope if there was a bomber, he was on the plane and sucked away like you said.

[canopus1969]

"It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last,"

[Andaman Al]

Awesome job by the whole flight crew.

[dabhand]

Luckily they were not at 35.000 feet, or it would have been a very different outcome.

It would appear that the bomb was due to be detonated at around that height. It was about one hour late departing, otherwise the explosion would likely have been at a height that pressurisation would have caused greater damage.

There is another thread on a 'lucky passenger' story. I would venture that the luckiest passengers (and crew) were undoubtedly those on board this plane

[Grouse]

Definite bomb

Interestingly, the route should have been flown by Turkish Airlines!

Airbus A321 obviously has a strong chassis

Captain did a great job