The Air Algerie plane has crashed (Picture: File)

Some 116 people are feared dead after the wreckage of a missing Air Algérie flight was spotted in Mali.

The Swiss-owned MD-83 fell off the radar 50 minutes after taking off from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, at 1.55am on Thursday.

And after French foreign minister Laurent Fabius conceded the plane, carrying 51 of his compatriots, had ‘probably crashed’, Mali’s president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita confirmed relatives’ worst fears.

‘I have just been informed that the wreckage has been found between Aguelhoc and Kidal,’ Mr Keita told a meeting in Bamako.


Two French fighter jets were in the search party scouring northern Mali for any sign of flight AH5107, which was heading for the Algerian capital, Algiers.



Soon after take-off, the Spanish pilot had asked air traffic control in Niger if he could change route because of a sandstorm. Within minutes, it dropped off the radar near Gao airport.

Gilbert Diendéré, who is coordinating a crisis unit in Bamako, said a witness had told him they had seen the plane ‘falling’ just before it lost contact with air traffic control.

He added: ‘We believe this information is accurate as we have compared it to radar images showing the flight path until the plane disappeared.’

MORE: Missing Air Algerie: ‘Poor visibility’ forced plane off route