Algeria passenger plane wreckage found in Mali
BBC || 24 July 2014 Last updated at 23:17 GMT
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane early on Thursday after pilots reported severe storms.
The passengers included 51 French citizens.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 - Flight AH 5017 - had been chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair.
Malian state television confirmed that the wreckage was found in the village of Boulikessi by a helicopter from Burkina Faso, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Gilbert Diendere, a Burkina Faso army general, said Mali had agreed to their cross-border search which was launched after a resident in Gossi described seeing a plane go down to the south-west of the town.
"They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered," he told AP.
French fighter jets and UN helicopters had been hunting for the wreck in the more remote desert region of northern Mali between Gao and Tessalit.
Contact with Flight AH 5017 was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou on Thursday morning, Air Algerie said.
The pilot had contacted Niger's control tower in Niamey at around 01:30 GMT to change course because of a sandstorm, officials say.
Burkina Faso authorities said the passenger list comprised 27 people from Burkina Faso, 51 French, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, two from Luxembourg, five Canadians, four Germans, one Cameroonian, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Swiss, one Nigerian and one Malian.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times a week, AFP reported.
BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says it a route often used by French travellers.
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
aviation analyst, said the aircraft was "relatively elderly"
BBC || 24 July 2014 Last updated at 23:17 GMT
 |
| The pilot of the Swiftair MD-83 plane, pictured here in June, had asked to change course |
The
wreck of a plane that disappeared with 116 people on board on a flight
from Burkina Faso to Algiers has been found in Mali, officials say.
The Burkinabe army said the plane, operated by Algeria's
national airline Air Algerie, had crashed about 50km (30 miles) from the
Burkina Faso border.Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane early on Thursday after pilots reported severe storms.
The passengers included 51 French citizens.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 - Flight AH 5017 - had been chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair.
Malian state television confirmed that the wreckage was found in the village of Boulikessi by a helicopter from Burkina Faso, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Gilbert Diendere, a Burkina Faso army general, said Mali had agreed to their cross-border search which was launched after a resident in Gossi described seeing a plane go down to the south-west of the town.
French fighter jets and UN helicopters had been hunting for the wreck in the more remote desert region of northern Mali between Gao and Tessalit.
Contact with Flight AH 5017 was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou on Thursday morning, Air Algerie said.
The pilot had contacted Niger's control tower in Niamey at around 01:30 GMT to change course because of a sandstorm, officials say.
Burkina Faso authorities said the passenger list comprised 27 people from Burkina Faso, 51 French, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, two from Luxembourg, five Canadians, four Germans, one Cameroonian, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Swiss, one Nigerian and one Malian.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times a week, AFP reported.
BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says it a route often used by French travellers.
aviation analyst, said the aircraft was "relatively elderly"
- Twin rear-engine, short-medium range airliner
- More powerful version of the MD-80 type, based on earlier DC-9
- Range: 4,637km (2,881 miles)
- Capacity: 172 passengers
- First flew: 1984
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