Missing Plane Crashed, Wreckage Found in Malian Town of Gao

The Air Algerie flight with 116 people on board from Burkina Faso to Algeria’s capital that disappeared from radar Thursday, crashed in the southern part of Malian town of Gao, according to Algerian official.

Yesterday, air navigation services lost track of the Swiftair MD-83 about 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, at 1:55 am GMT, the official Algerian news agency said.

Flight AH 5017 had been missing for hours before the news was made public on Thursday.

Malian state television on yesterday said the wreckage of Air Algerie flight carrying 110 passengers and six crewmembers, has been found south of the Malian town of Gao close to the border with Burkina Faso.

Report added that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was due to visit the site of the crash Friday.

Swiftair, a private Spanish airline, said the plane left Burkina Faso for Algiers at 1:17 a.m. GMT yesterday but had not arrived at the scheduled time of 5:10 a.m. GMT.

Local official in the nearby town of Gossi confirmed that the wreckage of flight AH5017, which was flying from Burkina Faso to Algiers, had been found.

Image Credit: www.ibtimes.com