The fate of the Air Algerie flight which vanished with 116 people on board en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers appears to have been uncovered after Mali's President confirmed wreckage has been found.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said today that the wreckage of the flight had been spotted in his country's desert north.
It is the third major aviation disaster in a week, following the MH17 disaster in Ukraine and the TransAsia Airways crash in Taiwan yesterday.
Nearly 250 people died in these two crashes. The week's grim toll may now rise by 116 more.
'I have just been informed that the wreckage has been found between Aguelhoc and Kidal,' Keita said during a meeting of political, religious and civil society leaders in Bamako. He did not give any more details.
The crash comes after a treacherous week for the aviation industry in which 298 people were killed when flight MH17 plane was shot down over Ukraine and 48 people died in a crash in Taiwan.
Airlines have also cancelled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.
The list of passengers on AH5017 includes 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians and five Canadians.
There were also four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgium, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
The flight path of AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear.
However, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedragor said the flight had been asked to change route because of a storm around 30 minutes after taking off.
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