Wreckage of Missing Algerian Airliner Found in Mali

Local Editor

The wreckage of an Air Algerie plane that disappeared with 110 people on board on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers on Thursday has been found in Mali, officials said.

Malian state TV reported that the wreckage of the Air Algérie flight was found close to the Malian town of Gossi. This information has been confirmed by a Burkina Faso official, according to AP.

General Gilbert Diendiere of the Burkina Faso army said, "We have found the Algerian plane. The wreck has been located...50 kilometers [30 miles] north of the Burkina Faso border" in the Malian region of Gossi.

"Sadly, the team saw no one on site. It saw no survivors," said Diendiere, a close aide to Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, and the head of the crisis committee set up to coordinate the search operation.

Early morning on Friday, France said it had sent troops to secure the site of the wreckage of the Air Algérie flight, Reuters reported.

"A French military unit has been sent to secure the site and gather the first elements of information," a statement from French President Francois Hollande's office said.

A French Ministry of Defense had told Fox News earlier that the two French fighter jets located the wreckage, while the airline placed the likely location of the crash further south west.

Moreover, a spokeswoman for Spanish private airline company, Swiftair, confirmed that it had lost contact with one of its planes operated by Air Algerie on Thursday, 50 minutes after take-off. The plane was an Air Algerie MD-83, flight AH5017.

Swiftair said that there had been "no contact" with the missing aircraft since.

Moreover, French Transport Minister, Frederic Cuvillier, told reporters that it was "likely many" French passengers were on board the flight.

"There are 110 passengers and 6 crew traveling on the plane, of which four are pilots and two cabin crew," the Swiftair statement confirmed. The crew members were Spanish.
A representative for the airline told a news conference that according to passenger lists, some 50 French nationals were traveling on the route. Additionally, there were 24 Burkinabe, eight Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one Romanian.

Burkina Faso's transport minister confirmed that the Air Algerie flight had asked to change course at 1:38 am GMT because of a storm.

Meanwhile, an Algerian aviation source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that "the plane was not far from the Algerian frontier when the crew was asked to make a detour because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk of collision with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team