Air Algerie Flight AH5017 Crashes In Mali

Officials say that an Air Algerie disappeared from radar as it was flying from Burkina Faso to Algeria’s capital. They said that the incidence took place over Northern Mali and Canadians were among the dead. Foreign Minister for France said that he presumed the plane had crashed, even though no wreckage had been found. Reports from Algerian news agency say that contact was lost immediately after it took off. MD-83 disappeared from radar 50minutes after taking off from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

The French Foreign Minister said that they had an intense search without a trace. All in all, he believes that the plane might have crashed. Two French jet fighters are also searching for the plane at the North of Mali. Among the passengers on board were 27 Burkina Faso nationals, 50 French passengers, 5 Canadians and citizens of other countries. Jean Bertin, Transport Minister of Burkina Faso, said the last message transmitted from the plane was at around 0130 GMT (9.30p.m EDT). It was asking Niger air control to change its routes as there were heavy rains in the area. The disappearance of the plane comes after a wave of other aviation tragedies. Fliers everywhere in the world have been on the edge since March when Malaysia MH370 plane disappeared on its way to Beijing. It had 239 passengers and searchers are yet to find pieces of wreckage from the jet. Last week a Malaysian airlines flight was brought down while flying over a war-torn area of Ukraine. Canadian, European and U.S. airlines began cancelling flights to Tel Aviv after one rocket landed close to the city’s airport. Also, a Taiwanese plane crashed and killed 48 people during a storm.

All these bad news can make fliers feel jittery; however, air travel is relatively safe. Abdelmalek Sellal, the Algerian Prime Minister, said on Algerian television that a few minutes before the plane disappeared, it got in touch with air traffic controllers in Gao. Northern Mali fell under Tuareg separatists control, later al-Qaida-linked Islamic terrorists following a military coup in the year 2012. Last year a French-led intervention managed to get rid of the terrorists; however, the Tuaregs have managed to come back against the Bamako-based government authority. A senior French official said that it was unlikely that fighters in Mali had weapons, which could bring down a plane. An official, whose name is not mentioned, said that they primarily have shoulder-fired weapons that can’t bring down a passenger plane flying at cruising altitude.


Swiftair, a private Spanish airline, said that the plane was carrying 6 crews and 110 passengers. The plane left Burkina Faso at 0117 GMT Thursday (9:17 P.M Wednesday), expected to reach Algiers at 0510 GMT (1:10 a.m EDT Thursday). They said it was not possible to contact the plane, and they were trying to ascertain what actually happened. The crew included 5 cabin staff and two pilots. Swiftair said that the plane was made in 1996 and had 2 Pratt & Whitney engines. The carrying capacity is 165 passengers. The plane has over 37,800 of flight time, and over 32,100 takeoffs and landings. It has also had several owners over the years, including Austral Lineas Aereas and Avianca.

The flight safety said if found to be a crash, this would be the 5th one and a 2nd one with fatalities for since it was found in 1986. The other incidence for the airline happened in July 28, 1998, where two pilots in a cargo flight to Barcelona died. Spokesman for the Algerian crisis centre, Houaoui Zoheir, said that Algerian aircraft were flying around Gao in search of the wreckage. He did not however mention the details of the aircraft.