Wreckage from plane and human remains found at what is thought to be crash site of Air Algerie flight which disappeared en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers and six crew on board including 51 French nationals
Air Algerie plane parking in the international airport of Algiers- the Air Algerie flight disappeared from radar screens over Mali 50 minutes after take off en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers
The wreckage of an Air Algerie flight which vanished from radar in West Africa has been discovered near Mali's border with Burkino Faso, according to officials.
Burkina Faso's commander in chief Gilbert Diendere said the burnt-out wreckage of flight AH5017 was found south of the Mali town of Gao, 30 miles north of the border.He said searchers found human remains and burned and scattered plane wreckage at the site.
The search team had gone from Burkina Faso to Mali to follow up reports from a resident who described seeing a plane go down.
The Air Algerie jetliner was carrying 116 people. It vanished on Thursday in a rainstorm over restive northern Mali, and French officials had said it has probably crashed - the third major international aviation disaster in a week.
French fighter jets, UN peacekeepers and others had been hunting for signs of wreckage of the MD-83 plane in the remote region. Scattered separatist violence may hamper any eventual investigation into what happened.
Families from France to Canada and beyond waited anxiously for signs of Flight 5017 and their loved ones aboard. Nearly half of the passengers were French, many en route home from Africa.
The plane, owned by Spanish company Swiftair and leased by Air Algerie, disappeared from radar screens less than an hour after takeoff, en route from Burkina Faso's capital of Ouagadougou to Algiers.
Before vanishing, the pilots sent a final message to ask Niger air control to change its route because of heavy rain, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said.
Burkina Faso's government spokesman said on national TV the country will observe 48 hours of mourning.
