Pilot After Somalia Emergency: Airplane Security Is ‘Zero’

In this Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016 photo, a hole is photographed in a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. A gaping hole in the commercial airliner forced it to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu's international airport late Tuesday, officials and witnesses said. AP Photo

Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec speaks during an interview with AP in Belgrade, Serbia on Feb. 7, 2016. AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

BELGRADE, Serbia—The Serb pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole on its fuselage said Sunday he never doubted that it was caused by a bomb and describes the security surrounding the airplane at Mogadishu Airport as “zero.”

A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the explosive inside the plane, Somali officials said Saturday.

The blast sucked a male passenger out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing on Tuesday in Somalia’s capital, they said.

The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane, with 74 passengers on board, took off from the airport and was at 11,000 feet ascending toward 30,000 feet.

“If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the explosion,” said pilot Vlatko Vodopivec.