The wreckage of a plane that disappeared with 116 people
on board on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers has been
found in Mali, officials say.
French troops based in the region are on their way to
secure the site, about 50km (30 miles) from the border
with Burkina Faso, French officials said.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane early on
Thursday after pilots reported severe storms.
The passengers on the Air Algerie flight included 51
French citizens.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 - Flight AH 5017 - had
been chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair.
French President Francois Hollande expressed solidarity
with the friends and families of those on board.
"A French military unit has been sent to (the area) to
secure the site and gather evidence," his office said in a
statement (in French).
The statement went on to say that the plane had
"disintegrated", without giving further details.
France's Interior Minister said it appeared likely the
plane had crashed due to bad weather.
'Burnt and scattered'
The crash site was identified on Thursday by the Burkina
Faso army near the village of Boulikessi, officials said.
Gilbert Diendere, a Burkina Faso army general, said Mali
had agreed to their cross-border search which was
launched after a resident in Gossi described seeing a
plane go down to the south-west of the town.
"Sadly, the team saw no-one on site. It saw no survivors,"
he told reporters.
"They found human remains and the wreckage of the
plane totally burnt and scattered," he added.
Malian state radio said shepherds had been the first to
spot the wreckage and had informed the authorities, the
BBC's Alex Duval Smith reports from the Malian capital,
Bamako.
'Sandstorm'
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told French
radio network RTL that "the aircraft was destroyed at
the moment it crashed", meaning that it did not appear
likely that the plane was attacked mid-flight.
"We think the aircraft crashed for reasons linked to the
weather conditions, although no theory can be excluded
at this point," he said.
Earlier, French fighter jets and UN helicopters had been
hunting for the wreck in the more remote desert region of
northern Mali between Gao and Tessalit.
Algerian officials held a crisis meeting on the crashed
plane
Contact with Flight AH 5017 was lost about 50 minutes
after take-off from Ouagadougou early on Thursday
morning, Air Algerie said.
The pilot had contacted Niger's control tower in Niamey at
around 01:30 GMT to change course because of a
sandstorm, officials say.
Burkina Faso authorities said the passenger list
comprised 27 people from Burkina Faso, 51 French, eight
Lebanese, six Algerians, two from Luxembourg, five
Canadians, four Germans, one Cameroonian, one Belgian,
one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Swiss, one Nigerian and
one Malian.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the
Spanish pilots' union.
French ties
Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four
times a week, AFP reported.
BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says it a
route often used by French travellers .
France sent troops to Mali in January 2013 after al-
Qaeda-linked militants threatened to overrun the
capital, Bamako.
It ended its military deployment in Mali in July, but
agreed to keep troops in the region as part of a new
military operation based in Chad, focused on targeting
Islamist extremists in the Sahel region.
France has strong ties to many west African countries.
Mali, Algeria and Chad were all former French colonies.
Source: http://m.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28475335

.