fbpx

Investigators Finally Reach Mali Plane Crash Location

Investigators Finally Reach Mali Plane Crash Location

From Al-Jazeera

Aviation experts, criminal investigators and soldiers have converged on an isolated patch of northern Mali to search for clues that might explain why an Air Algerie passenger jet fell from the sky in a storm and apparently disintegrated on impact.

French authorities said on Friday that the air disaster was probably the result of extreme bad weather, but they refused to exclude other possibilities without a full investigation.

All 118 people on board the plane, nearly half of them French, were killed. The passenger list also included other Europeans, Canadians and Africans. The six crew members were Spanish.

Investigators at the scene concluded the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft broke apart when it smashed into the ground early on Thursday, officials said, suggesting this meant it was unlikely to have been the victim of an attack.

“French soldiers who are on the ground have started the first investigations,” French President Francois Hollande said. “Sadly, there are no survivors.”

The plane was flying from Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, to Algiers, Algeria, when it disappeared just 50 minutes after take-off.

Read more at Al-Jazeera