Daallo Airlines Flight 159

Investigation

Somalia's Air Accident Investigation Authority (SAAIA) stated on 3 February that one person was missing from the aircraft once it had returned to Mogadishu and later confirmed that the missing person's body was found near Balad. An investigation into the bombing was carried out by the National Intelligence and Security Agency, with the cooperation of airport authorities and local police. Daallo Airlines, in a statement, said that a technical team of Hermes Airlines, the owner of the aircraft, as well as the aircraft's manufacturer, Airbus, played a role in the active investigation. The FBI also contributed its efforts to the investigation.

Initial tests of the damage on Flight 159 confirmed traces of explosive residue. It is thought that a bomb, possibly hidden within a laptop, was carried onto the aircraft by a person in a wheelchair. The passenger was believed to have been transferred into a regular seat after being brought onto the plane. Two passengers on the plane, including one who was sitting in the next seat, were arrested on suspicion of being accomplices. On 6 February, Transport Minister Ali Ahmed Jama confirmed that the explosion was caused by a bomb that "was meant to kill all onboard."

Somali authorities identified the deceased passenger as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, a 55-year-old male from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, but did not confirm that he was suspected of being the suicide bomber. Borleh was a teacher at an Islamic school, and said he was going abroad for health reasons according to Sheikh Mohamed Abdullahi, a mosque imam in Mogadishu. A Somali federal official stated that Borleh had been monitored by security agents, "but we had never considered him to be dangerous." A senior Somalia immigration official said that Borleh had obtained a Turkish visa to work in Turkey as an adviser for the foreign ministry. A letter was allegedly sent from the Somali Embassy in Ankara to the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu asking the Turkish Embassy to facilitate a visa for Borleh to be "an adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotions." The Somali Embassy in Ankara denied sending any such letter.

A security camera recording from the airport shows two men, seemingly airport workers, giving a laptop to Borleh. US officials have said that investigators believe the bomber had some type of connection to airline or airport personnel.

At least 20 people, including government officials and the two airline employees, were arrested on suspicion of being linked to the attack. The Serbian captain, Vlatko Vodopivec, criticised the lack of security around the aircraft at the airport, describing the facility as "chaotic." In an interview with the Associated Press, Vodopivec explained that "the security is zero. When we park there, some 20 to 30 people come to the tarmac... No one has a badge or those yellow vests. They enter and leave the aircraft, and no one knows who is who... They can put anything inside when passengers leave the aircraft."

Mohamed Ibrahim Yassin Olad, the CEO of Daallo Airlines, stated that the airline would keep flying to Somalia, despite the incident. "We have been there for 25 years," he said. "Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue."

On 13 February, eleven days after the incident, the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, in an email statement, claimed responsibility for the attack stating that it was "retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against the Muslims of Somalia." Al-Shabaab also said that it targeted Turkish Airlines because Turkey is a NATO state supporting Western operations in Somalia and that they were targeting Western intelligence officials and Turkish NATO soldiers who were on board.