Somalia: Mobile phone footage captures passenger plane after fatal mid-air fuselage explosion

Somali officials are investigating the cause of a fatal mid-air explosion on a passenger plane outside of Mogadishu that occurred on 2 February.

The blast happened minutes after the Airbus 321, belonging to Daallo Airlines of Somalia, took off from Somalia's main Mogadishu airport. One elderly passenger was reportedly sucked from the aircraft after being badly burned in the explosion, with the body of an old man later recovered from the town of Balad. Two passengers reportedly suffered minor injuries in the explosion, which some have suggested is bomb-related. However, authorities have said that they have as yet found no evidence of criminal activity and that investigations were still under way.

Mobile-phone footage from one of the passengers shows the hole in the plane. Passengers had been moved away from the hole and were surrounded by oxygen masks. Flight D3159 had been carrying around 74 passengers and crew from Mogadishu to Djibouti.