‘Sophisticated’ bomb on Somalia plane passed airport X-ray

A bomb that detonated in a Somali plane earlier this month, blowing a large hole in its fuselage before the aircraft was able to land safely, was a “sophisticated” device that was able to get through X-ray security checks at Mogadishu airport undetected, CNN reported, quoting a source close to the investigation.

It was not immediately clear how the X-ray machine was fooled, or whether the bombers’ “success” in getting the device through security has wider implications for airport security elsewhere.

The news network speculated that the machine may have been an older generation single-view machine still used in less developed countries, rather than a newer multi-view machine.

It also mentioned that some African countries do not use Explosive Trace Detection technology (ETD) in which passengers are swabbed to find minute quantities of explosives.

Such security weaknesses, CNN said, may have contributed to the terrorists’ ability to pass security clearance. The source did not say whether he believed the sophistication of the device could have overcome more advanced security measures.

An explosives expert told CNN that lax security at African airports has been the “elephant in the room for a long, long time.”

“When terrorists start changing their methods to the point where their explosive devices are no longer just a bag of bolts or a steel pipe, then the rest of the world needs to be worried. These sorts of disguised devices are disturbing,” the expert said. “A perpetrator may not fool the world-trained expert looking at the device on an X-ray, but a half-bored official without the same training might let something slip by. They are starting to defeat visual technology. It’s only as good as the operator.”

The Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabab on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack, which claimed the life of the suspected terrorist. The organization said it carried out the bombing “in response to the crimes of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against Muslims in Somalia.”

Investigators suspect passenger Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle carried the bomb onto the plane on his laptop, where it detonated around 15 minutes into the flight, before the plane reached cruising altitude. The blast sucked Borle out of the plane, killing him.

Had the blast occurred at a higher altitude, it could have led to explosive decompression on the plane and had devastating consequences. A lengthy delay in take-off may have saved passengers’ lives.

The Serb pilot who landed the jetliner after the explosion has described the security at Mogadishu Airport as “zero.” The pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec, called the facility “chaotic.”

“When we park (the plane) there, some 20 to 30 people come to the tarmac,” said Vodopivec, a veteran pilot who has made numerous flights to the airport. “No one has a badge or those yellow vests. They enter and leave the plane, and no one knows who is who … They can put anything inside when passengers leave the aircraft.”

He added that Somali investigators initially tried to put the blame on his airline company, Daallo Airlines. Now Somalia is blaming Islamist extremists.

Somalia’s transport minister Ali Jama Jangali last Saturday blamed Al-Shabab for the attack, saying “the bomb aimed to kill all onboard the plane.”

Security video footage taken at Mogadishu airport showed two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to the suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security checkpoint.

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

“At least 20 people, including the two men in the CCTV footage who handed over the laptop to the suspected bomber, were arrested in connection with the explosion in the aircraft,” said spokesman Aato.

“It was a deliberate act of terrorism,” he said. “Investigations are still ongoing.” Somalia’s government has said it will tighten security at the airport to prevent other threats.