Pilot after emergency: Somali airport security is ‘zero’

The incident had prompted the pilot to turn the Airbus back to Somalia where it made an emergency landing at the Aden Abdulle International Airport in Mogadishu from where it had taken off earlier.

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.

The pilot, a 64-year-old Serb named Vladimir Vodopivec, told a friend that he was convinced the blast had been caused by a bomb, according to the Serbian daily Blic.

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.

The February 2 incident was initially slow in making it into the global headlines after only one live was lost and the plane returned safely to the ground by the cockpit crew. “Engines and hydraulics worked normally”.

“Having a professional policing capability at the Airport will create the feeling of safety and security of the locals and visitors entering Somalia”, Pillay said.

At least one of the men delivering the laptop was an airport employee, government spokesman Abdisalam Aato told The Associated Press.

The statement confirms information a USA aviation expert close to the investigation told CBS News on Friday, that an IED inside a laptop caused the midair explosion.

He described security at Mogadishu airport as “good” and multilayered, and “much better than it used to be”.

“The security is zero”.

CCTV footage has been released showing the suspected Somali plane bomber in the airport before he boarded his fatal flight. “No one has a badge or those yellow vests. They can put anything inside when passengers leave the aircraft”.

Somalia’s government said it will tighten security at the airport to prevent other threats.

United States investigators believe the attack was carried out by the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab. “You can say they are trying to distance themselves from the incident”. “On the other side of the runway is the city”. It also encompasses offices and residential areas that are physically walled off from the surrounding city, a veritable “green zone” whose tenants include Bancroft, a US-owned security contractor.

The hole in the Daallo Airlines plane cabin.

Stojanovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia.