In 2016, a suicide bomber with explosives in his laptop boarded a Daallo Airlines flight, intending to destroy the aircraft. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the explosives detonated, blasting a hole in the plane, and instantly sucking the bomber out. He was the only fatality.
The explosive device was built into a laptop computer and blew a hole in the skin of the Daallo Airlines plane on February 2 but did not down the aircraft, because it detonated 20 minutes into the flight, before it reached cruising altitude. The suspected bomber was blown out of the plane, and his body was recovered on the ground near Mogadishu. The plane returned to the airport. Two people aboard were injured.
Investigators suspect Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, a Somali national, knew precisely where to sit and how to place the device to maximize damage. Given the placement, the blast likely would have set off a catastrophic secondary explosion in the fuel tank if the aircraft had reached cruising altitude.
But an hour delay in the departure of the flight may have saved everybody on board.
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.