An Air Algerie flight that went missing en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers with 116 people on board including 50 French nationals has crashed, an Algerian aviation official said today.
Air navigation services lost track of the Swiftair MD-83 around 50 minutes into the flight after the crew reportedly asked to change course due to a storm.
The plane, which is operated by Air Algerie, was last picked up on radar at 1.55am GMT and should have landed in the Algerian capital around three hours later.
'I can confirm that it has crashed,' the official said, declining to give details of where the plane was or what caused the accident, although it very likely went down in the Sahara desert.
It comes after a treacherous week for the aviation industry in which 298 people were killed when Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane was shot down over Ukraine and 48 people died in a crash in Taiwan.
Airlines have also cancelled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.
The list of passengers includes 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians and five Canadians.
There were also four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgium, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
The flight path of AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear.
Two French fighter jets based in the region have been dispatched to try to locate the airliner along its probable route, a French army spokesman said.
Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedragor said the flight had been asked to change route because of a storm around 30 minutes after taking off.
The flight path of AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear.
Two French fighter jets based in the region have been dispatched to try to locate the airliner along its probable route, a French army spokesman said.
Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedragor said the flight had been asked to change route because of a storm around 30 minutes after taking off. - dailymail.co.uk
 |
| Fateful path: Contact was lost with flight AH 5017 while it was still in Malian air space approaching the border with Algeria after taking off from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso |
0 comments: