Air Algerie jetliner crashes
MD-83 wreckage sighted in remote area of Mali
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – An Air Algerie jetliner carrying 116 people crashed Thursday in a rainstorm over restive Mali, and its wreckage was found near the border of neighboring Burkina Faso – the third major international aviation disaster in a week.
The plane, owned by Spanish company Swiftair and leased by Algeria’s flagship carrier, disappeared from radar less than an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou for Algiers.
French fighter jets, U.N. peacekeepers and others hunted for the wreckage of the MD-83 in the remote region, where scattered separatist violence may hamper an eventual investigation into what happened.
It was found about 30 miles from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali, a Burkina Faso presidential aide said.
The crash of the Air Algerie plane is the latest in a series of aviation disasters.
Fliers around the globe have been on edge ever since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March on its way to Beijing. Searchers have yet to find a single piece of wreckage from the jet with 239 people on board.
Last week, a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down while flying over a war-torn section of Ukraine, and the U.S. has blamed it on separatists firing a surface-to-air missile.
Earlier this week, U.S. and European airlines started canceling flights to Tel Aviv after a rocket landed near the city’s airport. Finally, on Wednesday, a Taiwanese plane crashed during a storm, killing 48 people.