The Terrorist Who Was Thrown Out by His Own Bomb: The Miraculous Survival of Daallo Airlines Flight 159

On February 2, 2016, Daallo Airlines Flight 159 took off from Mogadishu, Somalia, bound for Djibouti.

There were 81 people on board the Airbus A321: 74 passengers and seven crew members. For the people sitting inside the aircraft, it began as an ordinary commercial flight across the Horn of Africa.

Within minutes, however, the flight became the scene of a carefully planned terrorist attack.

A passenger was carrying an explosive device concealed inside what investigators identified as a laptop. The intention was devastating: to detonate the device while the aircraft was in flight and destroy the airliner, killing everyone aboard.

Instead, the attack produced an extraordinary chain of events that allowed the aircraft to survive.

The explosion tore a large opening into the fuselage and caused rapid depressurization. The attacker himself was ejected from the aircraft through the damaged section of the fuselage.

The aircraft, badly damaged but still controllable, turned back toward Mogadishu.

Against the odds, the pilots brought it safely back to the airport.

One person died as a direct result of the attack: the suspected bomber. The remaining 80 people aboard survived, although several passengers were injured.

The story has often been described as a remarkable case in which an act intended to cause mass death ultimately destroyed the person who carried it out.

But behind that dramatic ending was something more complicated: a combination of aircraft design, altitude, timing, flight-crew response, and sheer luck.

A Routine Flight That Turned Into a Nightmare

Daallo Airlines Flight 159, also designated DAO159, was scheduled to fly from Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu to Djibouti.

The aircraft was an Airbus A321, registered as SX-BHS. At the time, the aircraft was being operated for Daallo Airlines under a wet-lease arrangement involving Hermes Airlines. The flight carried 74 passengers and seven crew members.

Nothing about the beginning of the flight suggested that an extraordinary emergency was about to unfold.

The aircraft departed Mogadishu and began its climb.

Then, at approximately 10,400 feet, something happened that the passengers and crew could never have anticipated.

An explosion occurred inside the passenger cabin.

The official investigation later documented the event as an intentional explosion that caused substantial structural damage and rapid depressurization. The aircraft was able to return to Mogadishu and land safely.

The consequences could have been catastrophic.

Instead, the aircraft remained controllable.

That distinction would save dozens of lives.

The Explosion Blows Open the Fuselage

When the explosive device detonated, it caused severe damage to the right side of the aircraft.

Contemporary reporting described an opening roughly one metre across in the fuselage.

The blast caused the cabin to lose pressure.

For passengers inside the aircraft, the sudden decompression would have been terrifying. Air rushed through the damaged section, smoke filled parts of the cabin, and passengers were confronted with the horrifying realization that a portion of the aircraft's exterior was missing.

The incident occurred while the aircraft was still climbing.

That detail was extremely important.

The flight had experienced a delay before departure, and as a result, the aircraft had not yet reached its planned cruising altitude when the explosion occurred. The official investigation recorded the aircraft passing through approximately 10,400 feet when the explosion was heard.

The aircraft's relatively low altitude was one of several factors that helped turn a potentially catastrophic attack into a survivable emergency.

Had the aircraft been much farther into its flight, the circumstances could have been dramatically different.

The Attacker Was Ejected From the Aircraft

The most extraordinary part of the story was what happened to the person responsible for the explosion.

The blast and subsequent decompression created an opening in the fuselage. The suspected bomber was ejected from the aircraft through that opening.

His body was later found on the ground in the area near Balad, Somalia. Investigators concluded that the sole fatality associated with the event was the person believed to have carried out the bombing.

That meant the attacker's own explosive device ultimately caused his death.

The result was almost the opposite of what the attack had been designed to accomplish.

Instead of destroying an entire aircraft, the blast damaged the aircraft but left it sufficiently intact for the crew to regain control and return to the airport.

Instead of killing dozens of passengers, the attacker became the only fatality.

And instead of disappearing into a mass-casualty disaster, Flight 159 became one of the most remarkable survival stories in modern aviation.

The Delay That May Have Changed Everything

One of the most frequently repeated details about Flight 159 is the significance of a delay before takeoff.

According to reporting at the time and subsequent aviation analysis, the flight had departed later than originally planned. The aircraft was therefore still relatively low when the explosion occurred.

The official investigation confirms that the aircraft was climbing through approximately 10,400 feet when the explosion occurred.

Why does altitude matter?

A commercial aircraft is designed to maintain a pressurized cabin while flying at high altitude. The pressure inside the aircraft is significantly higher than the extremely thin atmosphere outside at cruising altitude.