Midair terror as 'bomb' rocks jet

An explosion blew a gaping hole in an airliner on Tuesday, jarring passengers and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The Somalian Daallo Airlines flight, en route to Djibouti, was able to land in Mogadishu with only two minor passenger injuries. About 75 people were evacuated — but it was unclear whether all on board had been accounted for.

“I think it was a bomb,” said the pilot, Vladimir Vodopivec. “Luckily, the flight controls were not damaged so I could return and land at the airport. We lost pressure in the cabin. Thank God it ended well.”

An aviation expert, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board, said that given the extent of the damage, it “certainly it looks like a device” blew the hole in the fuselage.

A Somali UN diplomat on board the flight posted cellphone video on Facebook that showed passengers donning oxygen masks as the jet descended.

The envoy, Awale Kullane, said he “heard a loud noise and couldn’t see anything but smoke for a few seconds.”

Unverified reports from a small town north of Mogadishu said a person may have been sucked from the jet in the apparent blast.

A police officer in the town of Balad said residents reported finding the body of an elderly man whom they suspect may have fallen from the aircraft.