Plane carrying 116 people CRASHED in Africa during rainstorm AN Algeria-bound passenger jet with 116 people on board has crashed in Africa. By: Jane MathewsPublished: Fri, July 25, 2014 A plane has gone missing in Africa [PH/Express] The plane was missing for several hours after changing course to avoid a collision with another aircraft due to poor visibility. Algeria aviation officials now confirm it has crashed, but have not released any details of casualties. France have scrambled fighter jets to the planes last known location in Mali and officials said they believe it went down during a rainstorm. French President Francois Hollande said the Air Algerie Flight 5017 changed its flight path because of particularly difficult weather conditions. After an emergency meeting in Paris, Mr Hollande said: Everything allows us to believe this plane crashed in Mali. The 59-year-old added that all of Frances military capabilities in Mali are being activated to search for the wreckage of the plane. France have a strong military presence in Mali because of its intervention there in January 2013 to combat Islamic extremists in the north. Flight AH5017 got into difficulty after taking off from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. It was told to change its course to avoid a collision with another plane flying from Algiers to Bamako, the capital of war-torn Mali. Air Algeria said emergency measures have bee launched [N/C] Everything allows us to believe this plane crashed in Mali French President Francois Hollande The plane is believed to have come down in a remote desert area of neighbouring Mali, after being spotted by French forces stationed in the region. There are worries the area, between Kidal and Gao in the north-west of the country, will prove to be inaccessible to emergency services. The airport from where the plane took off has also reported on its website that Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro, was onboard the plane. However, sources in Cuba later denied these claims and said the mother-of-three was at an event in capital Havana today. Earlier in the day French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the plane probably crashed and that no trace of the aircraft has been found. Air Algerie representative Kara Terki told a news conference that all the passengers on the plane were in transit, either for Europe, the Middle East or Canada. He said the passenger list included 50 French, 24 Burkinabe, eight Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one Romanian. Lebanese officials said there were at least 10 Lebanese citizens on the flight. Spanish airline Swiftair was operating the flight on behalf of Air Algeria, and the six crew members on board are Spanish. The fate of those on board is not yet known. Bad weather seen over Burkina Faso earlier, from where the plane took off [SAT24.COM] Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedrago said that the pilot asked for permission to change route because of a sand storm around 20 minutes into the flight. News of the crash emerged as the French army said they had dispatched two jets based in Africa to look for the missing plane. An Air Algeria spokesman said that Flight AH5017, which was due to land at its destination at 5.40am this morning, had been asked to divert course. The signal was lost after the plane change its route. Air Algeria provides four weekly flights to and from Ouagadougou. Todays incident is the third fatal air crash this week. The disaster comes a week after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board. It also has chilling echoes of the disappearance of Flight MH370, which disappeared in March after taking off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite extensive searches, the Malaysia Airlines plane, which had 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, has not been found. Yesterday, 48 people were killed in Taiwan after a plane crashed during bad weather.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 05:30:25 +0000