Somali intelligence officials investigating a bomb blast on a commercial jet released surveillance footage Sunday appearing to show a passenger being given a laptop in which the bomb was concealed. The blast Tuesday ripped a hole in the Daallo Airlines plane fuselage shortly after it took off from Somalia's main airport, killing one person and forcing an emergency landing. The newly released surveillance footage shows the suspected bomber being handed a laptop by two other men, one of whom is wearing a security jacket, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said. "There are investigations going on and about 15 people have been arrested so far in connection with the incident," a Somali security official said. "The initial investigation results indicate that the bomb was planted in a laptop and was carried by one of the passengers. "A CCTV camera recorded some of the activities and the attack is believed to have been coordinated by a network of individuals, many of whom have been arrested and are being investigated," the source added.<br/>
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The Serbian pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole in its fuselage said Sunday that he never doubted it was caused by a bomb and described the security surrounding the airplane at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu as “zero.” A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the explosive inside the plane, Somali officials said Saturday. The blast sucked a male passenger out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing Tuesday in Somalia’s capital, they said. The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane, with 74 passengers on board, took off from the airport and was at 11,000 feet ascending toward 30,000 feet. “If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the explosion,” said the pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec. Because the plane was at a lower altitude, he was able to land it safely, Vodopivec said. “The plane acted normally, and we virtually returned normally. Engines and hydraulics worked normally.”<br/>
SkyWest, the parent of regional carriers SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines, earned a net profit of $117.8m for the full-year 2015, reversed from a net loss of $24.2m in 2014. The regional airline operator credited the improved earnings on its continued shift from an emphasis on flying 50-seat aircraft to flying dual-class 76-seat aircraft (Bombardier CRJ700s/900s and Embraer E175s). SkyWest CEO Chip Childs said the company’s fleet will be 50% dual-class aircraft by the end of 2017 compared to 38% currently.<br/>