The aircraft had previously been operated by Hermes Airlines, Air Méditerranée, Myanmar Airways International and Swissair.

[9] On 2 February 2016, 20 minutes after taking off from Mogadishu, Somalia,[10] at 11:00 local time, en route to Djibouti City, at an altitude of about 14,000 ft (4,300 m),[11] an explosion occurred aboard the aircraft, opening a hole in the fuselage behind the R2 door.

[2] There were three injuries on-board, and the burnt body of the suicide bomber fell from the aircraft, landing in the town of Dhiiqaaley near Balad, Somalia;[18] it was found by nearby residents.

[9] An investigation into the bombing was carried out by the National Intelligence and Security Agency, with the cooperation of airport authorities and local police.

[10] On 6 February, Transport Minister Ali Ahmed Jama confirmed that the explosion was caused by a bomb that "was meant to kill all onboard.

"[19][26] Somali authorities identified the deceased passenger as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, a 55-year-old male from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia,[27] but did not confirm that he was suspected of being the suicide bomber.

[28][29][30] Borleh was a teacher at an Islamic school, and said he was going abroad for health reasons according to Sheikh Mohamed Abdullahi, a mosque imam in Mogadishu.

A senior Somalia immigration official said that Borleh had obtained a Turkish visa to work in Turkey as an adviser for the foreign ministry.

[25][35] The Serbian captain, Vlatko Vodopivec, criticised the lack of security around the aircraft at the airport, describing the facility as "chaotic."

"[3] On 13 February, eleven days after the incident, the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, in an email statement, claimed responsibility for the attack stating that it was "retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against the Muslims of Somalia.

[7] On 30 May 2016, a Somali military court found two men guilty of planning the plot and of being members of al-Shabaab and sentenced them to life in prison.