Wreckage of an Algerian plane reported missing with 116 people on board on Thursday has been found in northern Mali, a West African country.
"We have found the Algerian plane. The wreck has been located ... 50 kilometres north of the Burkina Faso border," Tehelka quoted Burkina Faso General Gilbert Diendiere.
He reportedly said that a team from Mali has been sent on a search operation after a witness, who's a resident of Gossi, reported to have seen a plane crashing down.
"They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered," BBC quoted Diendiere.
Flight AH5017 chartered from Spain's Swiftair was flying from Burkina Faso in West Africa to the capital of Algeria, Algiers. It was under the control of six Spanish crewmembers and was carrying with 110 passengers including 51 French citizens.
The contact between the airliner's pilot and air traffic controllers (ATC) was disrupted right after ATC was informed about the heavy storm and the pilot was diverting the route.
The UN helicopters and French fighter jets have been deployed to hunt for the wreckage between Gao and Tessalit in northern Mali. France has also sent a military unit at the reported site of the crash to "secure" the area and "gather evidence."
However, the countries indulged in search operation have reportedly expressed concern over the possession of plane wreck and human bodies, as the site reportedly falls in the area of Mali, which is under the control of Tuareg separatists and the al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists since 2012.
Conflicting Cause behind the Crash
While some officials in Burkina Faso have reportedly said that the sand storm and lightening was the cause behind the crash, another aviation official said, "A sandstorm cannot get itself all the way up to 10,000 meters or 30,000 feet."
While a former pilot Jean Serrat said that either the flight was attacked by a terror outfit or it crashed down due to a missile attack similar to that of the MH17, The Telegraph reported.
MH17 was reportedly shot down in a missile attack, a week before, by a separatist group over Ukraine killing 295 people on board.
French President said no one Survived in the Crash
The French soldiers sent earlier today have reportedly recovered a flight data recorder on reaching the crash site. Based on the found evidence, French President Francois Hollande said that all the people on board Flight AH5017 have died.
Ruling out chances of ground strike, the officials investigating the site have reportedly said that the plane crashed after hitting the ground. They based their theory on the fact that the plane debris were recovered within a very limited area, which is unlikely to happen in case of missile attack.
"The aircraft was destroyed at the moment it crashed. We think the aircraft crashed for reasons linked to the weather conditions. No theory can be excluded at this point ... but that is indeed the most likely theory," Reuters quoted French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
