Air Algerie wreckage found in Mali
The wreck of Air Algerie flight AH 5017that disappeared with 116 people on board on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers has been found in Mali, officials say.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane early on Thursday after pilots reported severe storms.
The shepherds saw the plane fall," Louis Berthaud, the deputy mayor of Gossi, said Thursday night.
General Gilbert Diendéré, the coordinator of the Burkina Faso government's crisis unit for the missing plane, confirmed that soldiers had found the plane's wreckage.
According to New York Times, General Diendéré said his men found the plane's wreckage in an isolated area about 60 miles south of the town of Gao in Mali as night was falling on Thursday.
"We saw no survivors," he said in a telephone interview from Ouagadougou. He said the troops had had to halt their examination for the night.
"We think it was the weather — there were lots of storms, lots of lightning," General Diendéré said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 - Flight AH 5017 - had been chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair.
The French president's office said that troops were on their way to secure the site, about 50km (30 miles) from the Burkina Faso border.
The passengers on the Air Algerie flight included 51 French citizens.
Sources: BBC, New York Times
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