Reuters/AFP/Bamako, Ouagadougou

 Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Thursday that the wreckage of a missing Air Algerie flight had been spotted in his country's desert north. "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 wreck has been found in Mali near the Burkina Faso border, said a coordinator for the crisis unit in Ouagadougou. "We have found the Algerian plane. The wreck has been located ... 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the Burkina Faso border" in the Malian region of Gossi, said General Gilbert Diendiere from the Burkina Faso army.

 

Four countries have been taking part in the search for the Air Algerie plane, flight AH5017, which went missing over northern Mali, an air traffic control official in Dakar said on Thursday.
She confirmed that Mali, Algeria, Niger and France were coordinating their efforts under the umbrella of the French-led military intervention in Mali, Operation Serval.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 carrying 110 passengers "probably crashed" in Mali, with several sources pointing to the Gao region in the north-east of the country.  
"Even though the aircraft was above Mali it was in airspace managed by the control centre in Niamey in Niger," the ASECNA official told AFP.  
She did not rule out the possibility weather conditions could have played a part.  
"It is possible. Weather phenomena are still dangerous for aircraft. There were a number of storms in the area but we cannot confirm they had any effect," she said.
ASECNA covers 17 African countries, and France is also a member.  
Air Algerie said on Thursday that it lost contact with the aircraft flying from Ouagadougou to Algiers 50 minutes after it took off from the Burkina Faso capital.
An airline source in Algiers told AFP that the plane was over northern Mali when contact was lost.

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