'Disintegrated' Wreckage of Missing Air Algerie Plane Is Found
Military officials in Burkina Faso announced that they have located the wreckage of an Air Algerie airliner that went missing on Thursday with 116 people on board. Though rescue and emergency crews have not reached the site yet, the plane reportedly "disintegrated" and it is not believed that there were any survivors. The wreckage was spotted in Mali, near the border with Burkina Faso.
The plane, which is owned by the Spanish company SwiftAir and operated by Air Algerie, was traveling from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to Algiers on Thursday when is disappeared from radar about 50 minutes into the flight. The last contact from the plane was reportedly to air traffic control in Niger, when the pilots asked to change course due to poor weather conditions. It is believed at this time that the weather is the likely cause of the crash, as their are no indications of terrorism.
French President Francois Hollande has dispatched a military unit to secure the crash site and begin an investigation. The crash was the third major air disaster in seven days, following the downing of Malaysia Air Flight 17 in Ukraine and the crash of another passenger in Taiwan.
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Update 8:29 a.m.: The Associated Press reports that French soldiers have reached the crash site and found one of the plane's black boxes, which should provide some answers about what went wrong. Unfortunately, they've also confirmed that there are no survivors.
Update 10:50 a.m.: The first images are coming in from the crash, and it does appear that the plane was almost completely destroyed upon impact. These photos were supplied by the French military.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/07/disintegrated-wreckage-of-missing-air-algerie-plane-is-found/375032/
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