A jetliner with 116 people onboard disappeared overnight Thursday on a flight across the Sahara from Burkina Faso to Algeria.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, a Boeing MD-83, about 50 minutes after it took off from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, bound for Algiers, according to the official Algerian news agency.
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An Air Algérie representative, Kara Terki, told reporters at a news conference in Burkina Faso that all the passengers on Flight 5017 were on their way to destinations beyond Algeria, in Europe, the Middle East or Canada, Reuters reported. Mr. Terki said the passenger list included 50 French citizens, 24 people from Burkina Faso, 8 Lebanese, 4 Algerians, 2 people from Luxembourg and one each from Belgium, Switzerland, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ukraine and Romania, the news agency reported, adding that Lebanese officials gave a higher figure, 10, for their citizens on the plane. The Spanish pilots’ union said all six crew members were Spanish, Reuters reported.
