Air Algérie flight AH5017 from Burkina Faso to Algeria disappears from radar

Air Algérie flight AH5017, thought to be carrying 110 passengers and six crew, disappears in early hours of Thursday morning.

A Swiftair MD-83 plane like the one that disappeared from radar on Thursday morning. Photograph: Reuters

A flight operated by Air Algérie carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso toAlgeria's capital disappeared from radar early on Thursday, the plane's owner said.

Air navigation services lost track of the Swiftair MD-83 about 50 minutes after takeoff from Ougadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, at 1.55am GMT the official Algerian news agency said. That means that flight AH5017 had been missing for hours before the news was made public.

The flight path of the plane from Ouagadougou to Algiers wasn't immediately clear. Ougadougou is in a nearly straight line south of Algiers, passing over Mali, where unrest continues in the north.

Swiftair, a private Spanish airline, said the plane carrying 110 passengers and six crew left Burkina Faso for Algiers at 1.17am GMT on Thursday but had not arrived at the scheduled time of 5.10am GMT.

Swiftair said it has not been possible to make contact with the plane. The company said it was trying to ascertain what had happened.

It said the crew included two pilots and four cabin staff. "In keeping with procedures, Air Algérie has launched its emergency plan," the APS news agency quoted the airline as saying.

Via: The Guardian