Bomb Suspected in Deadly Explosion on Somalia Jet

Man sucked out of passenger jet after bomb exploded was a suicide bomber who smuggled his device on board in his WHEELCHAIR, claim investigators.

A wheelchair bound suicide bomber may have been responsible for the explosion which tore a hole in the side of a jet in Somalia, investigators have said.

They said the suspected terrorist, thought to be part of the Al-Shabaab Islamist group, may have faked a disability to bypass security checks at Mogadishu airport.

The suspected bomber is also thought to be the man who was sucked out of the plane after blowing a hole in the fuselage, shortly after the plane filled with more than 70 passengers took off from the Somali capital. 

The man who fell from the plane has been named by local officials as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, 55, from Somaliland, but they did not confirm if he was the suicide bomber.

Investigators  have   said he may have smuggled a bomb on board the plane in his wheelchair before moving to a different seat once on board, a Western diplomat briefed on the investigation told the Wall Street Journal.

Investigators believe Somali based terror group Al Shabaab was behind the suspected bomb blast.

But no group, including Al Shabaab, has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. 

The Airbus A321 was forced into an emergency landing in Mogadishu on Tuesday following the explosion on Tuesday. 

Traces of explosive TNT was found on the aircraft, according to two U.S. government sources who cited forensic tests.

But one of them cautioned that such tests have a high false-positive rate and further tests are under way.

Yesterday, a Somali computer programmer told how the blast shook Daallo Airlines Flight D3159 five minutes after take off, tearing a hole in the jet's fuselage and sucking an elderly passenger to his death at 14,000 feet.