Security video footage taken at Mogadishu airport shows two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to a suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security checkpoint, Somalia’s government spokesman said on Sunday.
At least one of the men delivering the laptop was an airport employee, spokesman Abdisalam Aato said.
The man who received the laptop is the suspected suicide bomber who was blown from the Daallo Airlines jet on Tuesday last week, creating a gaping hole in the fuselage and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing back at the Mogadishu airport.
Photo: AP
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,” Aato said.
“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 said.
“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,” he said.
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 (3,500m) ascending toward 9,450m.
“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.
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