By BI: A wheelchair-bound MUSLIM suicide bomber is alleged to have been responsible for the explosion which tore a hole in the side of a jet in Somalia. Investigators said the suspected MUSLIM terrorist, thought to be part of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group, may have faked a disability to bypass security checks at Mogadishu airport.

UK Daily Mail   The suspected bomber is also thought to be the man who was sucked out of the plane after blowing a hole in the fuselage, shortly after the plane filled with more than 70 passengers took off from the Somali capital.  The man who fell from the plane has been named by local officials as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, 55, from Somaliland, but they did not confirm if he was the suicide bomber.

Investigators have said he may have smuggled a bomb on board the plane in his wheelchair before moving to a different seat once on board, a Western diplomat briefed on the investigation told the Wall Street Journal.

Investigators believe Somali based terror group Al Shabaab was behind the suspected bomb blast. But no group, including Al Shabaab, has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The Daallo Airlines flight bound for Djibouti in the Horn of Africa was able to fly back to Mogadishu and land safely and 74 passengers on board were evacuated.

The Airbus A321 was forced into an emergency landing in Mogadishu on Tuesday following the explosion on Tuesday. Traces of explosive TNT was found on the aircraft, according to two U.S. government sources who cited forensic tests.

Yesterday, a Somali computer programmer told how the blast shook Daallo Airlines Flight D3159 five minutes after take off, tearing a hole in the jet’s fuselage and sucking an elderly passenger to his death at 14,000 feet.

Survivor Hassan Mohamed Nur said the cabin went black and filled with thick smoke as passengers screamed in terror.  Mr Nur said the passenger, an elderly man, caught fire before he was sucked from his seat and out of the Airbus A321.

‘I saw the passenger, a man in his early 60s, get sucked out of the plane,’ he told MailOnline. ‘There was a huge bang. A big hole appeared in the side of the jet and the man disappeared through it. ‘One minute he was sat in his seat, the next it he was gone. He’d been sucked out of the plane.

‘People were screaming. We all thought we were going to die.’ The charred body of a man, who may have fallen from the plane, was found in Balad, 18 miles from Mogadishu. Airline officials say two passengers were hurt in the blast.

Aviation sources have suggested the aircraft was delayed leaving Mogadishu meaning the suspected bomb, if it was on a timer, went off at a lower altitude, giving the passengers on board a greater chance of survival.