Air Algerie flight with 116 on board crashes in Mali

ALGIERS, Algeria (KABC) -- An Air Algerie flight carrying 110 passengers and six crew members disappeared from radar and crashed in Mali during a rainstorm on Thursday.

Flight 5017 was flying from Burkina Faso to Algeria's capital when it vanished over northern Mali, officials said. Air controllers lost contact with the Swiftair MD-83 about 50 minutes after takeoff, but it was hours before that information was made public.

Two French fighter jets were deployed to search for wreckage, which was found about 31 miles from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali, a Burkina Faso presidential aide said.

"They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered," said Gen. Gilbert Diendere, a close aide to Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore and head of the crisis committee set up to investigate the flight.

Before vanishing, the pilots sent a final message to ask Niger air control to change its route because of heavy rain in the area, according to an official in Burkina Faso.

Swiftair, a private Spanish airline, said the plane left Burkina Faso for Algiers at 0117 GMT Thursday (9:17 p.m. EDT Wednesday), but had not arrived at the scheduled time of 0510 GMT (1:10 a.m. EDT Thursday).

Officials say the passengers include 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgium, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian.

The Air Algerie crash is the third tragedy in the skies in seven days, and the second disappearance of a passenger plane in recent months. On March 8, a Malaysia Airlines flight vanished with 239 people on board after it took off from Kuala Lampur for Beijing. Malaysian officials said the plane disappeared in the Southern Indian Ocean, but no wreckage has been located.

Last week, a Malaysia Airlines flight with 298 on board 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.