Two gunmen armed with pistols tried to hijack a Somali passenger airline shortly after it took off from Bosaso city in the Puntland regional authority.
A passenger Khadra Ali who was onboard with the airline spoke to VOA Somali Service about the incidence. Khadra said that two young Somali gunmen pulled out pistols and tried to enter the cockpit 15 minutes after takeoff. She described the intense on-flight drama as something that involved a shootout on the part of the hijackers. The gunmen demanded the cockpit to be opened but the pilots refused to do so. Then, gunmen fired five shots which did not do enough to force the pilots to obey the orders of the hijackers, according to Khadra Ali. No one was injured in the incident.
The armed hijackers then instructed the Steward to convey their order to the pilots. The order from the gunmen to the pilots was to land the plane in Lasqoray town, also in Puntland.
About 30 passengers were on board with the plane which belongs to Daallo Airlines, Somalia’s largest private airline company. According Mrs. Ali, the gunmen appeared to have wanted to kidnap two foreign journalists among the passengers once they landed at Lasqoray. “They said they did not want to harm the passengers and that they were interested only in the two foreign journalists,” Ali said.
Stewart convinced the two men that the plane was heading to Lasqoray. Instead, the pilots returned the plane to Bosaso. After arriving at Bosaso, Puntland security forces surrounded the plane and arrested the two gunmen.
One of the gunmen tried to escape after landing, but Puntland police who were alerted by the pilots shot and wounded him. Bosaso police have now taken the two men to jail in Bosaso.
The plane resumed its flight to Djibouti and was reported to have landed at Djibouti Airport without incidence.
