Air Algerie

Air Algerie’s Flight AH5017 has reportedly crashed over Mali on its way to Algiers with 116 people on-board, with wreckage discovered in the northern Mali desert in Africa, marking the third air tragedy within a week.

Leased from Spanish firm Swiftair, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft faded away from radar screens within an hour of takeoff from Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou due to bad weather conditions.

Burkina Faso Army General Gilbert Diendiere was quoted by AFP as saying: "We have found the Algerian plane.

"The wreck has been located… 50km north of the Burkina Faso border.

"At the moment, we have no further information on (the fate of) the passengers but our teams are hard at work."

Passengers on board AH5017 included 51 French nationals, 24 Burkinabe, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, six Spanish, five Canadians, four Germans and two Luxembourg nationals. Everyone on-board

"The wreck has been located 50km north of the Burkina Faso border."

An undisclosed Air Algerie source said: "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.

"Contact was lost after the change of course."

French forces, including two fighter jets, together with Algerian and UN personnel within the region have collaborated to carryout search activities.

It is the latest tragedy within the past week, with the crash of TransAsia Airways’ ATR 72-500 aircraft killing 47 people and the downing of a Malaysian Airlines’ MH17 plane in Ukraine, which killed all 298 on-board.

Global airline passengers have been nervous ever since disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight in March en route to Beijing.

Image: An Air Algerie’s Airbus A330-202 aircraft. Photo: courtesy of Paul Spijkers.

Defence Technology