They say bad things come in threes and an Air Algerie plane is the latest addition to a series of aviation disasters. Air Algerie flight AH5017 went missing earlier today and has crashed in northern Mali with 110 passengers and six crew members onboard, officials reported.
“I can confirm that it has crashed,” the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.
The plane was travelling from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to Algiers when air navigation services lost contact with the aircraft just 50 minutes after take off, according to the airline.
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.
Burkina Faso’s transport minister confirmed that the Air Algerie flight had asked to change course at 1:38 am GMT because of a storm.
More to come.