(CNN) -- A plane carrying U.S. Rep. Donald Payne was fired on Monday as it left the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, but the aircraft departed safely and landed without incident in Nairobi, Kenya, his office said, citing U.S. State Department officials.
U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, D-New Jersey, meets with soldiers in Iraq in an undated photo.

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, D-New Jersey, meets with soldiers in Iraq in an undated photo.

"We understand that his plane was fired on ... as he left, ... but that they have left safely and that no one was hurt," said Kerry McKenney, spokeswoman in Payne's Washington office, citing police officers at the airport.

"We are hoping that he's safe and on his way back home."

Police officers at the airport told Payne's staff in Washington that the plane was damaged in the attack, but the severity was not immediately clear.

Payne, who was traveling with an Africa expert from the Library of Congress, was the only lawmaker on the trip, McKenney said. They traveled to London, England, on April 9 and two days later to Djibouti, she said.

Payne travels to Africa often, and a plane carrying him was attacked during a previous trip to Somalia, McKenney said.

He was aware of the danger he could face, State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

"We provided the congressman with a briefing and gave him a very frank and straightforward assessment of the security situation on the ground," Wood said, noting the State Department has issued an advisory warning Americans not to travel to Somalia.

The New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health was visiting Somalia because "he felt it was important to travel there to see firsthand what was happening," McKenney said.

The trip was planned before the pirate standoff involving the Maersk Alabama, though the issue of piracy was on Payne's agenda, she said.

Payne's original plans had been to fly from Somalia to Nairobi and then return to the United States, she said.

"I don't know whether they have changed, but I hope to be hearing from the congressman shortly," she told CNN in a telephone interview.

Earlier Monday, a journalist in Mogadishu said mortar rounds and gunfire were heard near the airport shortly after Payne ended a news conference with Somalia's prime minister, Omar Abdirashid.

Payne was hoping to spend four to five hours in Mogadishu at the conclusion of the trip to meet with both Somalia's prime minister and members of the African Union, McKenney said.