Somalia Plane’s Mid-Air Blast Caused by Bomb - Transport Minister

A mid-air blast on board a Somalian airliner was caused by a bomb explosion, Somalian Transport Minister Ali Ahmed Jamac said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, a blast tore a hole in the side of the Airbus A321 plane, belonging to the Dubai-based Daallo Airlines, minutes after it took off from the Mogadishu airport to fly to Djibouti.

"It was a bomb that exploded in the Daallo Airlines flight. It was meant to kill all aboard," Jamac was quoted by the BBC as saying Saturday.

The aircraft was carrying 74 people. A passenger was reportedly sucked out from the gash in the fuselage, two others were injured in the incident.

Investigators believe that the al-Shabaab militant group, a Somali-based affiliate of al-Qaeda, could be behind the attack.