Bomb on board Somali plane was meant to hit Turkish Airlines?

Nairobi: In a startling revelation, it emerged on Tuesday that the passengers on a Somali plane, which was hit by a bomb detonation mid-air on February 2, were originally meant to fly Turkish Airlines.

Daallo Airlines chief executive officer Mohamed Ibrahim Yasin Olad told AFP that the man, who is believed to have detonated the bomb on the flight, had initially intended to board a Turkish Airlines flight.

The blast on board the Daallo Airlines flight ripped a hole in the fuselage of the plane.

The blast took place not long ago after the flight took off from Somalia's main airport.

While the suspected bomber was killed in the incident, the plane managed to make an emergency landing.

"The passengers were intended for another airline, Turkish Airlines," Yasin Olad said.

He added that Daallo Airlines agreed to fly the passengers onwards to Djibouti after the Turkish plane failed to turn up.

The AFP reported that Somali intelligence officials have released surveillance footage which shows a passenger being given a laptop in which the bomb was likely concealed.

Somali security officials have so far arrested 15 people in connection with the incident.

Investigators have identified the dead passenger as Abdulahi Abdisalam, who was propelled out of the aircraft in the explosion.

Two of the 74 passengers were slightly injured.

Daallo Airlines operates flights across Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa and Gulf region.

Turkish Airlines is one of the only major international airlines to fly regularly to Mogadishu.

While no terror group has claimed responsibility for the blast, the needle of suspicion is pointing towards the Islamic State.