MD-83 disappeared just an hour after leaving the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, going to Algiers. Now, the wreckage of the missing Air Algerie jetliner has been found.
According to USA Today, the Burkina Faso officials have confirmed that they've found the wreckage of the missing jetliner. They found it in Mali, which is just 31 miles from the border of Burkina Faso. The plane that disappeared was leased by Air Algerie, but the owner is Swiftair.
Head of the Crisis Committee and aide to Burkina Faso president Gilbert Diendere 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." He added, "They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered."
The search for the missing plane was made easier. When a resident of Mali saw the plane go down, rescuers immediately went to the area. It was reported in a Malian state television that the exact site of Flight 5017 is at Boulikessi Village and that a Burkina Faso helicopter confirmed the sighting.
Tuareg specialist Sidi Ould Brahim said "We found the plane by accident," as he was making his way from Mali to a Malian refugee camp. "The plane was burned, there were traces of rain on the plane, and bodies were torn apart," he further told the Associated Press.
French president Francois Hollande had an emergency meeting about the missing plane in Paris. He stated, "Everything allows us to believe this plane crashed in Mali." The cause? It was difficult weather conditions.
After departure, the pilots of the flight asked Niger air control to give them a new flight route due to the heavy rain. However, AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Sagliani believes that the rain in that area isn't too violent.
"In general, there were scattered showers and thunderstorms across all of Burkina Faso and the southern half of Mali. This was with the monsoon trough, which is typically found here in late July. So this activity was quite normal," said Sagliani.
Could it be that the plane was shot down too? A senior French official told the Associated Press that Mali fighters shooting down the plane is highly unlikely as they don't have the weaponry.
According to USA Today, the plane's passengers included "51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two Luxembourg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian... the six crewmembers were Spanish."
