Authorities have lost contact with an Air Algerie flight en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers on board, Algeria’s APS state news agency and a Spanish airline company say.
APS said authorities lost contact with flight AH5017 an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, although other officials gave other timings, adding to confusion about the fate of the flight and where it might be.
Spanish private airline company Swiftair confirmed it had no contact with its MD-83 aircraft operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.
In a notice posted on its website, the company said the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 1:17am GMT (11:17am AEST) and was supposed to land in Algiers at 5:10am (3:10pm AEST) but never reached its destination.
According to an Algerian aviation official, authorities last had contact with the plane at 1:55am GMT (11:55am AEST), when it was flying over Gao, Mali.
Aviation authorities in Burkina say they handed the flight to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, at 1:38am GMT (11:38 AEST).
Burkina Faso’s transport minister said the flight asked to change route at that time because of a storm.
The Burkinabe aviation authorities said last contact with the flight was just after 3:30am GMT (1:30pm AEST).
A crisis unit has been set up in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families of people on the flight.
A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country – which lies on the plane’s likely flight path – was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.
Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali’s National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight.
“We do not know if the plane is Malian territory,” he told Reuters.
“Aviation authorities are mobilised in all the countries concerned – Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain.”
An Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso said 50 French nationals were on the passenger list.
source: abc.net.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 