Wreckage of Algeria airliner found in Mali

Mali presidential aide says “humans remains and wreckage” of Air Algerie plane found near the village of Boulikessi.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com

The wreckage of a missing Air Algerie plane has been found about 50km from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali, a presidential aide has said.

“We sent men with the agreement of the Mali government to the site and they found the wreckage of the plane with the help of the inhabitants of the area,” said General Gilbert Diendere, a close aide to president Blaise Compaore.

“They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered.”

He told the AP news agency that they went to the area after hearing from a resident who described seeing a plane go down.

The plane, designated AH5017 and carrying 116 people, disappeared from radar on Thursday over northern Mali while on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algeria. It was carrying mainly French and Burkina Faso citizens.

Earlier, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said the plane had “probably crashed”, while the French president, Francois Hollande, said his government would use “all military means” in Mali to help in the search for the plane.

Two French fighter jets are among aircraft who had been scouring the north of Mali for the wreckage, and France has hundred of troops stationed in Mali after defeating an al-Qaeda-linked rebellion last year.

The flight, scheduled by Air Algerie and operated by the Spanish private company Swiftair, was flying in heavy rain, according to reports.

Plane passed inspection

A French aviation watchdog said the plane was checked “two or three days ago” and was “in good condition”.

Patrick Gandil, the head of the French civil aviation authority, said the plane passed through Marseille days ago.

“We examined it and we found almost nothing, it was really in good condition,” he said.

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

Northern Mali fell under control of ethnic Tuareg separatists and then al-Qaeda-linked fighters following a military coup in 2012.

The French-led intervention in 2012-13 scattered the al-Qaeda groups, but the Tuaregs have pushed back against the authority of the Bamako-based government.

A senior French official said it seems unlikely that fighters in Mali had the kind of weaponry that could shoot down a plane.