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Fidel Castro's niece Mariela was reportedly on the doomed flight which has crashed in Mali - a week after he blamed the Ukrainian government for the MH17 disaster.

The retired Cuban leader's relative is said to be one of 116 people on board the passenger plane which disappeared en route from Burkina Faso to Algeria.

According to officials at Ouagadougou airport, Mariela Castro and two European officials of French nationality working in the city were on the list of passengers on board.

Last week, Fidel Castro blamed the Ukrainian government for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Air Algerie flight AH5017 disappeared from radar contact en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers.

(Image: Getty)

Algeria's APS state news agency said authorities lost contact with the passenger jet around an hour after it took off from Burkino Faso at 1.17am this morning.

It was due to land in Algiers at 5.10am, but never reached its destination.

Mariela Castro, 51,

This afternoon, an Algerian aviation official confirmed the missing plane has crashed, but declined to give details of where the plane was or what caused the accident.

There had been reports that the plane asked to change route because it was approaching a storm, and Algerian media reported that plane may have crashed into the Niger River.

FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES ON THE SEARCH FOR FLIGHT AH5017 HERE

The latest aviation incident comes exactly a week after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot out of the sky as it flew over Eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew; a day after a TransAsia Airways plane crashed off Taiwan during a thunderstorm; and four and a half months after Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappeared without trace on its way to Beijiing.

(Image: Google)

Spanish private airline company Swiftair, who own the aircraft flying as AH5017, confirmed this morning it had no contact with the MD-83 plane operated by Air Algerie.

It said the jet was carrying 110 passengers and six crew, including two pilots and four cabin staff.

An Algerian aviation official said the last contact Algerian authorities had with the aircraft was at 01.55am when it was flying over Gao, Mali.

Aviation authorities in Burkina say they handed the flight to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, at 1:38 am, and their last contact with the flight was just after 4:30 am.

A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country - which lies on the plane's likely flight path - was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.

(Image: Reuters)

Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali's National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight.

"We do not know if the plane is Malian territory," he said. "Aviation authorities are mobilized in all the countries concerned - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain."

Authorities in Burkino Faso have set up a crisis unit in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families of people on the flight as they wait for information on its fate.

French transport minister Frederic Cuvillier said it was likely many of the 116 on board were French, with one report putting the number at around 50.