Air Algerie: British man killed in AH5017 crash - live

A British man and 10 members of a French family spanning three generations were among the victims of the Mali crash

• Wreckage found near city of Gao, close to Burkina Faso border
• French president says no hypothesis ruled out as to crash cause
• Air traffic lost track of plane over Mali 50 minutes after takeoff
• Plane had rerouted due to heavy rains shortly before contact lost
• Flight AH5017 had 116 on board at time, including 51 French
• All six crew members were Spanish employees of plane owner Swiftair

Latest

20.21 Following the confirmation a British man was killed in the crash, Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by the death, PA reported.

"Thoughts very much with friends and family," he added.

Mr Cameron has also written to Mr Hollande "to send sincere condolences for the loss of so many French citizens", Downing Street said.

19.15 More images have emerged from the crash site and debris from the plane

18.20 More detail is emerging on Swiftair, the Spanish company which supplied the plane and crew. AFP reports:

The flight's two Spanish pilots were employed by Swiftair on temporary contracts and were "very experienced", according to the Spanish pilots union Sepla.

Here are some facts on Swiftair and its crew:

THE COMPANY: Founded in 1986, Swiftair specialises in leasing its aircraft for cargo flights and since 2002 for passenger flights in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to its website.

The Madrid-based company has more than 400 employees and a fleet of over 30 planes, including Boeing 727, Boeing 737, Embraer 120 and McDonnell Douglas MD-83 jets like the one which crashed over Mali.

Swiftair usually "wet leases" its aircraft to airlines, meaning it grants them access to the plane, crew, insurance and maintenance in exchange for a flat fee.

"Wet leasing" is a "common practice" by airlines when demand for seats surpasses the capacity of their own fleets, said Agustin Guzman of Sepla.

Swiftair had a plane based in Algeria which regularly covered the Ouagadougou-Algiers route, he added.

THE CREW: Swiftair has not revealed the identity of the two pilots of the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 plane that crashed over Mali but Guzman said they were both "very experienced and had a great deal of experience with this type of aircraft".

Both pilots joined Swiftair from Spanish airline Spanair, which ceased operations in 2012, four years after one of its planes crashed on take-off at Madrid airport, killing 154 people.

They were recruited by Swiftair by a specialised temporary work agency, said Guzman.

Algerian Transport Minister Amar Ghoul said "this plane had already made this flight with the same crew five times."

SAFETY: Swiftair is certified as a Spanish air transport company so it must follow Spanish and European rules even when it is flying outside of Spain, said Guzman.

While the company is not well known by the general public "it does not have a bad reputation" in the aviations sector, he added.

The plane which crashed over Mali passed its yearly safety review in January, according to the Spanish government.

It was inspected in Marseille by French civil aviation experts who gave it the all clear.

In 2012, another of Swiftair's MD-83s damaged its right wing while landing at Afghanistan's Kandahar airport, according to Spain's transport ministry. No one was injured.

"Every airline in the world has had incidents which have been investigated by the authorities," said Guzman.

The region in northern Mali where the plane crashed uses technical means to aid air navigation "that are much inferior to what we have in Europe", according to Sepla.

"For example there is not an air traffic controller who directly supervises a plane. We indicate our position to the air traffic controller," said Guzman.

"Since we know there is no radar control, we inform other pilots as well of our position," he added.

The region is in an "intertropical zone" which is known for "being very active where we experience many storms," he added.

17.40 BREAKING: The Foreign Office has confirmed that a British man was killed in the crash. He has not yet been identified; officials say they are working with French authorities.

17.30 The Reynauds, a family of 10 who perished in the Air Algerie crash, were on "the trip of a lifetime", according to friends who spoke of their devastation at the loss.

Three generations of the family - Michel Reynaud, his ex-wife, their adult children and their partners, and four grandchildren - had travelled to Burkina Faso because a relative had married a Burkinabe, according to French newspaper Le Bien Public.

The newspaper quoted a friend of the family who lives in Paris, Christian Plaza, as saying the family had at the last minute thought of cancelling the trip as one of the grandchildren, 16-year-old Nathan, had broken his leg and the cast had yet to come off. Nathan often spent holidays staying with him and his own son, Mr Plaza said, adding: "My son was waiting for him ... he'll never come again."

"It is a tragedy. It was the trip of a lifetime," he added.

^{A picture of Nathan Reynaud and family posted on a Facebook tribute page}

16.41 Watch: the moment French President François Hollande informed the world that there were no survivors from flight AH5017.

16.05 More images have emerged from the crash site, which is being guarded by French troops:

15.22 Just now we reported that ten people from the same French family were killed in the crash. They have now been named as the Reynauds, apparently an extended family from towns in eastern France, according to local officials and relatives.

15.07 BREAKING: Ten people from same French family killed in Air Algerie crash, authorities are saying. We'll have more details as they come in.

^{French Defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian delivers a press conference at the Elysee Palace}

15.04 In Burkina Faso, President Blaise Compaoré has declared 48 hours of national mourning over the disaster. Meanwhile, some relatives of the passengers have expressed anger at Air Algerie, which did not have a representative present at Ougadougou Airport as the tragedy unfolded last night.

"Unfortunately, we've learned very little from the company, which has abandoned us," one family member, named only as Justin, to Radio France International.

14.54 Let's take a look back at how events have developed since the Air Algerie flight left the Burkina Faso capital yesterday, with the help of this timeline from AFP:

THURSDAY, JULY 24

0105 GMT: A McDonnell Douglas MD-83 chartered from the Spanish company Swiftair, takes off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso on a regular flight to Algiers.

0148 GMT: The Spanish crew signals a change in course owing to very bad weather conditions.

0155 GMT: Last radar contact as the plane passes over northern Mali.

Later in the morning, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal declares that "the plane disappeard over Gao, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Algerian border, and that there are "victims".

Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger launch searches around Gao, while French Mirage 2000 jets take off from two African bases to join the effort.

1500 GMT: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius say the passenger jet "probably crashed" near Gao, and an official investigation is launched.

1645 GMT: French President Francois Hollande cancels a trip to Indian Ocean countries because "all evidence suggests the plane has crashed."

Fabius says he does not rule out any reason for the crash, but notes that a weather alert had been issued in the region.

Around 1900 GMT: Contradictory information circulates on where the debris lies. Burkina Faso puts it in the Malian region of Gossi, and a French surveillance drone is sent over the zone.

0000 GMT: French troops sent by helicopter reach the site and formally identify the plane.

FRIDAY, JULY 25

Around 0100 GMT: A statement by Hollande's office says the plane has been found in the Gossi region in a "disintegrated state."

A French army unit of about 100 soldiers reaches the zone around daybreak.

0700 GMT: French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says that weather conditions are "the most probable hypothesis" for the crash.

Junior transport minister Frederic Cuvillier says that France had quickly ruled the possibility of ground fire being a cause.

0845 GMT: Hollande says "there are no survivors," that one of the plane's flight recorders has been found, and that the debris field is limited, which means the plane was probably intact when it hit the ground. He says no hypothesis is being ruled out as to the cause of the crash.

1316 GMT: Fabius says there were 54 French passengers on board, including some dual nationals.

Hollande's office says the plane was carrying 112 passengers and six crew members. Swiftair says the plane was carrying 116 passengers and crew.

14.48 Air France-KLM has ended a temporary "precautionary measure" which diverted its flights away from the crash site, the French group said.

"Overflights have been resumed, the situation is back to normal," a spokesman said. Earlier it was announced that the alliance would use alternate flight paths to the west of the crash site in northern Mali to serve the capital Bamako.

That suggests that investigators are increasingly certain that the plane was not downed by an attack, although as yet this possibility still hasn't officially been ruled out.

14.33 Jean Yves Le Drian, the French defence minister, is also speaking at the press conference. He says: "Some 150 km separate Gossi from Gao, namely a two to three-hour drive and from Gossi to the accident takes another six hours. So you can appreciate this will be a long-term operation."

14.31 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is speaking in Paris. He says some 30 men have been airlifted to the crash site and a further 200 are on their way on the ground. More details as we have them.

14.26 The number of French nationals on board has been confirmed by officials in Paris as 54, not 51 as previously reported. That is because three passengers had dual nationality, officials said. There were also an additional two people on board, taking the total number of passengers and crew to 118, not 116 as thought.

13.41 With news of the third major aviation disaster in a week, fears of flying have been spilling onto social media, as many wonder whether aviation is becoming more dangerous.

The Telegraph's Josie Ensor reports that experts don't believe so - although, as the volume of flights increase, the number of accidents may rise accordingly. Here's an excerpt from the full article:

Industry analysts and safety experts say they can find no common themes. Nor do they think the events indicate that flying is suddenly becoming less safe.

Less than one in two million flights last year ended in an accident in which the plane was damaged beyond repair, according to the International Air Transport Association. That includes accidents involving cargo and charter airlines as well as scheduled passenger flights.

"One of the things that makes me feel better when we look at these events is that if they all were the same type event or same root cause then you would say there's a systemic problem here, but each event is unique in its own way," said Jon Beatty, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, an airline industry-supported nonprofit in the US that promotes global aviation safety.

But Beatty said he also finds the disaster cluster "a cold reminder" that airline accidents are likely to increase because the industry is growing, especially in developing countries. The more flights there are, the more potential for accidents, he said.

13.23 As investigators begin to probe the cause of the crash, here's a graphic from AFP showing the plane's specifications:

13.10 The first pictures have begun to emerge of the crash site, in the Gossi region of Mali near the city of Gao, close to the Burkina Faso border. The following images have been shown on French television:

12.31 Air France-KLM is to avoid flying over the site in northern Mali of the crashed Air Algerie airline as a "precautionary measure", a spokesman for the French group has said.

The spokesman said the company would continue to serve the Malian capital Bamako, but using other flight paths to the west of the crash site in northern Mali.

The precaution comes in the wake of suggestions that the plane could have been shot down by Islamist fighters who have been battling French troops in the country. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve said earlier that it was thought weather was the most likely cause of the crash, but that no hypothesis could be ruled out, noting the terrorist activity in the area.

12.04 Following the news that French troops have located one of the two black boxes, take a look at this video explainer on how a flight recorder works:

11.18 As relatives and families of the AH5017 passengers receive the news they have been dreading, more details are emerging of those who perished.

Four members of the Daher family from the Lebanese village of Srifa were travelling on the Air Algerie flight. Randa Daher was accompanied by her three children, Shaima, 8, Salah, 15 and Ali, 17.

^{A relative in Srifa shows a picture of the family on her mobile phone}

^{Shaima Daher, 8}

10.58 The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has expressed his condolences to friends and families of the victims of the Air Algerie crash. In a statement, he said:

I am deeply saddened to hear confirmation of the crash of Air Algeria flight AH5017 on 24 July. My thoughts and sympathies go out to all those who have lost loved ones in this tragic incident. The British Government stands ready to help in any way we can.

10.45 We have more detail now from Paris on the investigation into the plane crash. French Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier has told France-Info radio that a French Reaper drone based in Niger spotted the wreckage, on Friday. Two helicopter teams also overflew, noting that the wreckage was in a concentrated area. A column of soldiers in some 30 vehicles were dispatched to the site, he said.

He said that quick discovery of the wreckage is "decisive" in piecing together what happened, describing the aircraft as "disintegrated" and debris "in an apparently small area."

Meanwhile the French interior minister, Bernard Cazenueve, highlighted the terrorist activity blighting the area. He indicated to RTL radio that the government was considering the possibility the plane had been shot down by Islamists who have been battling French troops in the country.

"We think the plane went down due to weather conditions, but no hypothesis can be excluded as long as we don't have the results of an investigation," Mr Cazenueve said.

"Terrorist groups are in the zone. ... We know these groups are hostile to Western interests."

10.14 It has now been confirmed that there are no survivors from AH5017. Speaking after a crisis meeting, President François Hollande announced that French soldiers have reached the wreckage and retrieved one of the plane's two black boxes, but that all passengers have perished. He said that no hypothesis is being ruled out regarding the cause of the crash.

^{President François Hollande in Paris}

09.35 Residents of a village in central France were "devastated" to hear that an entire family from their 550-strong community was on board the Air Algerie plane.

Bruno Cailleret and Caroline Boisnard, from Menet, "were coming back from a trip to Burkina Faso with their two children, Elno, 14 and Chloe, 10," said Denise Labbe of the local town hall.

Ms Boisnard's mother was also travelling with the family, who had been due to land in the southern city of Marseille.

"Everyone is devastated in the town. We all know the family, who live in front of the town hall. No one can quite believe it, it's like having a bad dream," Ms Labbe said, according to AFP.

France, which maintains strong connections with its former colonies in West Africa, has suffered the heaviest losses from the crash with 51 nationals believed to be among the dead.

The wreckage of the plane was found late on Thursday in Mali near the Burkina Faso border and France's transport minister has said that survivors are almost "out of the question".

08.30 French officials have ruled out the possibility that the Air Algerie jet was shot down from the ground, transport minister Frederic Cuvilliersaid:

We have excluded from the start the possibility of a strike from the ground

08.28 It is extremely unlikely, and even "out of the question", that any of the 116 people on board an Air Algerie plane that crashed over Mali has survived, France's transport minister Frederic Cuvillier said this morning.

Given the state of the plane [wreck], it is very unlikely, even out of the question, that there are any survivors

08.15 The "most probable" cause of the Air Algerie crash is weather, although other potential causes for the accident of the jet are not being excluded, France's interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said:

We think that this plane crashed for reasons pertaining to meteorological conditions

08.00 Many questions remain unanswered regarding the fate of the Air Algerie flight.

The discovery of wreckage south of Gao, near the Burkina Faso border, contradicts a statement by Mali's president last night that the plane had been found crashed in the far north of the country, between the towns of Aguelhoc and Kidal, just south of the Algerian border.

The bigger question perhaps is now what caused the plane to crash.

French investigators this morning have concluded the Air Algerie flight broke apart when it hit the ground, suggesting this meant it was unlikely to have been the victim of an attack.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told RTL radio:

The aircraft was destroyed at the moment it crashed.

We think the aircraft crashed for reasons linked to the weather conditions, although no theory can be excluded at this point.

07.30 Overnight, reports have emerged that wreckage from the plane has been found near Mali's border with Burkino Faso, according to officials.

Burkina Faso's commander in chief Gilbert Diendere said the burnt-out wreckage of flight AH5017 was found south of the Mali town of Gao, 30 miles north of the border.

He said searchers found human remains and burned and scattered plane wreckage at the site.

Read full report: Air Algerie plane wreckage found in southern Mali

07.00 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the disappearance of the Air Algerie flight AH5017, which lost contact with air traffic control just under an hour into its flight from Burkina Faso to Algeria yesterday morning.

11.45 The wreckage of the plane has been found 30 miles from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali.

Gen. Gilbert Diendere, an aide to Blaise Compaore, the president of Burkino Faso, and head of the crisis committee leading the search, said human remains and burned and scattered plane parts were found at the site.

He said searchers had been sent to the area after hearing from a resident who described seeing a plane go down.

22.32 A Canadian family of four are thought to be among the victims, according to local media.

The mother, father and two children lived in a suburb of Montreal and were returning home with a friend - a resident of nearby Sherbrooke, Quebec - from another couple's 50th wedding anniversary celebrations in Burkina Faso, said French-language broadcaster LCN.

21.32 Radio France International said locals had heard “loud explosions” early in the morning near Kidal.

Efforts to reach the wreckage now could prove perilous as it lies right in the heart of the Tuareg uprising and Islamist activity that has brought chaos to northern Mali.

21.13 Readers may have heard the rumours earlier today that the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro was killed in the flight.

However Mariela Castro, a sexologist and gay-rights activist, assured journalists including AFP she is alive and well, contradicting reports she had been onboard the Air Algerie plane that went missing in Mali.

20.54 According to Henry Samuel in Paris, there is speculation the plane crash might have been an act of terrorism.

Kidal is the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising that plunged Mali into chaos in 2012, leading to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of the country by militants linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

A French-led intervention last year dispersed the extremists, but the Tuaregs still pose a serious threat in the north, as do a string of other fractious Islamist groups.

While AH5017 clearly changed direction due to bad weather, some experts doubted a storm could have caused a crash.

Jean Serrat, a former airline pilot, said the causes were more likely to be “either a terror strike on board” or a missile strike like the one that brought down MH17 last Thursday, killing 298 people – 194 of them Dutch.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said: “We cannot, we must not rule out any theory before having all the evidence at our disposal.”

20.01 The Malian government and six rebel groups signed an accord on an end to hostilities as part of ongoing peace talks that opened in Algiers last week, AFP reports.

A ceasefire has been in force with the mainly Tuareg and Arab rebel groups since a last eruption of fighting in May.

The two sides also signed a roadmap aimed at "putting in place a framework for the peace talks to allow the emergency of comprehensive negotiated settlement."

The signature of the two documents marked "a satisfactory result with which to crown the initial phase of the dialogue", Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said in a short statement.

The talks, which opened on July 17, are to resume next month aimed at reaching an agreement by the autumn on power-sharing short of secession.

While separatist demands have officially been dropped by the rebel Tuareg groups attending the talks, they are demanding greater autonomy or a special status for northern Mali, known by the Tuareg as Azawad.

After inflicting a "major defeat" on the Malian army in the Tuareg region of Kidal in May, the rebel movements now occupy nearly two-thirds of the country's territory and are in a position of strength in the talks, according to the Algerian hosts.

19.50 According to Reuters, the Mali government and northern rebels say they have signed an agreement in Algiers on the roadmap towards a peace deal.

19.35 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said authorities were looking into every possible cause for the disappearance of the plane which had 51 French nationals on board, AFP reports.

We cannot, we must not exclude any hypothesis before having all elements (at our disposal)," he said on French television, reiterating that the pilot of the plane - which had at least 116 people on board in total - had diverted its route due to bad weather.

19.31 Efforts to reach the wreckage could prove perilous as it lies right in the heart of the Tuareg uprising and Islamist activity that has brought chaos to northern Mali, reports Hannah Strange.

Efforts to reach the wreckage could prove perilous as it lies right in the heart of the Tuareg uprising and Islamist activity that has brought chaos to northern Mali.

The area around the towns of Kidal and Aguelhoc is a key stronghold of the Tuaregs and the centre of a recent upsurge in fighting between government forces and the separatist MNLA. In May, the convoy of Prime Minister Moussa Mara came under attack during a visit to Kidal, triggering fierce clashes in which 50 troops died and leading the government to declare itself once again "at war" with the MNLA.

A ceasefire was later agreed, but that has been broken by several outbreaks of fighting including battles less than a fortnight ago in the desert between Kidal and the city of Gao to the south which killed at least 37.

As well as confrontations between the MNLA and government troops, infighting amongst separatist factions and clashes between the Tuaregs and their former Islamist allies have brought further bloodshed to the northern region.

Government representatives and separatist representatives recently opened peace talks in Algeria though as with previous negotiations, there are doubts whether they will bring an end to Tuareg uprising.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is active in the area, as are other Islamist groups, while the Tuaregs remain in control of Kidal, Aguelhoc and a number of other towns in the area. The government claims the Tuareg are still backed by AQIM and other Islamists, though the separatists largely deny this.

19.22 According to French President Francois Hollande, the pilots had decided to divert from their route due to "extremely difficult weather conditions", AP reports. We recently heard from the President of Mali who has said wreckage was spotted between two northern towns in his country.

19.11 AFP has spoken to family members of some believed to be on board the flight who have spoken of the lack of information provided to worried relatives.

At Orly airport outside Paris, two young women visibly in shock, their eyes red, asked for information at the Air Algerie desk, saying their cousin was on board.

The 34-year-old man lives in Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African country of Burkina Faso, and was due to land in Orly around midday.

"They don't know anything here. They didn't even know that the plane had disappeared and they don't have a passenger list," said Laetitia, who found out about the news on television.

"They have no trace of the flight," the woman with her, Diata, said. "I called the (emergency) number but they didn't say anything. We're just waiting."

A little later, two older women arrived at the airport, tears in their eyes. They were immediately taken to a lounge on the fourth floor where a crisis cell had been set up.

19.00 President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said the wreckage of a missing Air Algerie flight had been spotted in his country's desert north, Reutersreports.

"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.

18.52 Mali's president has said wreckage of the Air Algerie flight has been spotted between northern towns of Aguelhoc and Kidal, according to Reuters.

18.21 The pilots, in their last radio contact, said they were diverting course due to "extremely difficult weather conditions", Francois Hollande said.

Speaking on French television, the president vowed to deploy all of France's military means in Mali, where it has hundreds of troops, to track down a missing Algerian plane.

18.06 Francois Hollande, the French president, has spoken about the missing plane:

The search will take as long as needed. Everything must be done to find this plane. We cannot identify the causes of what happened.

Mr Hollande has cancelled an official trip he had been scheduled to make to Reunion, Mayotte and Comoros, according to BFMTV.

17.42 Conflicting reports of "crash site" locations of AH5017 continue to emerge.

One possibility seems to be in the Kidal region of Mali, where there are reports from Radio France International - France's equivalent of BBC World Service - of locals hearing "powerful explosions" this morning around Aguelhoc,

Unverified reports of the discovery of wreckage by French soldiers in the Tilemsi area of central Mali, have been denied by the French. The same location was given by a mysterious tweet from an account claiming to be the official feed of Air Algerie, which tweeted that: "AH5017 L'avion se serait crashé à Tilemsi. L'avion se serait crashé dans la région de Tilemsi, à 70km de Gao." (AH5017 The plane would have crashed at Tilemsi. The avion would have crashed in the region of Tilemsi, 70km from Gao)

Of course, at this stage we do not have full confirmation that the plane has crashed at all.

17.18 The missing flight had diverted shortly before it lost contact with air traffic control due to heavy rains, suggesting turbulent weather as a likely explanation for its disappearance.

These meteorological maps show the conditions in Mali at the time.

17.00 The missing Air Algerie flight AH5017 was checked "two or three days ago" and was "in good condition", France's aviation watchdog has said.

Patrick Gandil, head of the French civil aviation authority, said the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 "passed through France in Marseille two or three days ago. We examined it and we found almost nothing, it was really in good condition."

16.47 Swiftair has said the missing plane was built in 1996 and has two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 PW engines. It can carry 165 passengers.

Swiftair took ownership of the plane on Oct. 24, 2012, after it spent nearly 10 months unused in storage, according to Flightglobal's Ascend Online Fleets, which sells and tracks information about aircraft.

It has more than 37,800 hours of flight time and has made more than 32,100 takeoffs and landings. The plane has had several owners over the years, including Avianca and Austral Lineas Aereas.

16.37 Rumours that Fidel Castro's niece Mariela may have been on board the flight, traced to a Facebook page which claims to be run by Ouagadougou airport, are false, the Telegraph can confirm.

16.30 With reports suggesting that the plane was diverted to avoid bad weather, focus is likely to shift onto the amount of fuel the plane had on board. David Millward explains:

Swiftair, which is registered in Spain, is governed by rules established by the European Aviation Space Agency (EASA). It requires aircraft to carry not only enough fuel for the journey but also enough to divert to another airport in the case of bad weather or another emergency and a further reserve of 30 minutes flying time.

16.20 The search for AH5017 is "focussing at this stage on a vast strip of Malian territory around the region of Gao," in the north of the west African nation, said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.

16.16 David Millward reports on the safety record of Swiftair, the Spanish company which owned and staffed the missing flight. The airline, according to Aviation Safety Network, has only had four accidents since it was founded in 1986:

In October 1993 one of its aircraft was written off when the crew forgot to lower the landing gear as the plane arrived in Madrid. In May 1995, another aircraft was damaged beyond repair during a botched landing at Vitoria airport in Spain.

In July 1998 two crew were killed when a cargo aircraft crashed en-route to Barcelona when the pilot lost control of the plane and in January 2012 a plane sustained substantial damage during a botched landing at Kandahar.

16.00 French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed that there has been no trace of the missing plane yet.

"Despite intensive search efforts no trace of the aircraft has yet been found," Fabius told journalists in Paris. "The plane probably crashed."

He added that French Mirage warplanes were scouring the area for the aircraft, which had 51 French nationals on board.

15.49 Despite some reports that plane wreckage has been located, the French foreign minister says the Air Algerie flight is still missing, despite the ongoing search, and that it "probably" crashed.

15.21 No further details have been reported of the cause or location of the apparent crash of AH5017.

However, a source in Niger has told The Telegraph that forces on both sides of the Mali-Niger border are currently searching for wreckage of the plane, without any success so far.

"They are seeking the flight in the east of Mali and in Niger," he said, citing a conversation with a Niger army colonel.

14.56 Though we do not know the cause of AH5017's disappearance and reported crash, the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington had explicity warned civil aircraft to avoid flying over Mali because of insurgent activity.

The Notice to Airmen - or NOTAM - read:

U.S. OPERATORS AND AIRMEN SHOULD AVOID OPERATING INTO, OUT OF, WITHIN OR OVER MALI AT OR BELOW FL240 DUE TO INSURGENT ACTIVITY. THERE IS RISK TO THE SAFETY OF U.S. CIVIL FLIGHTS OPERATING INTO, OUT OF, WITHIN OR OVER MALI FROM SMALL-ARMS, ROCKETPROPELLED GRENADES, ROCKETS AND MORTARS, AND ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE, TO INCLUDE SHOULDER-FIRED, MAN-PORTABLE AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS.

14.42 David Millward reports on the MD-83 - the aircraft type which has reportedly crashed this morning en route to Algiers:

David Gleave, an aviation expert at Britain’s Loughborough University, described the MD-83 as a "pretty solid airplane in general." He added: "It flies fairly simply, pilots understand how it flies so it is a solid, reliable workhorse … it is unlikely to be the flight crew didn't understand the aircraft."

There have been three fatal accidents involving the MD 83 went into service in 1985. Three other aircraft have been written off following accidents, although there were no fatalities.

March 15 1999 - Korean Air

Aircraft damaged beyond repair after botched landing at Pohang, South Korea.

Jan 31 2000 - Alaska Airlines

All 88 people on board killed when plane nosedives into sea off California because of stabiliser problem. Attributed to poor lubrication.

Jan 8 2005 - Aero Republica

Plane written off after aircraft overruns runway on landing in Colombia

Oct 11 2007 - AMC airlines

Plane written off after overshooting runway during emergency landing in Istanbul.

Nov 30 2007 - Atlasjet airlines

All 57 people on board killed when plane crashes into a Turkish mountain

June 3 2012 - Dana Air

All 153 people on board killed along with 10 on the ground when plane on domestic flight in Nigeria loses power in both engines

14.18 A fuller passenger list has been published by official Algerian news agency APS.

The list of passengers includes 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo reportedly said.

However, AFP is reporting that "at least 20" passengers were Lebanese.

The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.

14.14 Fiona Govan reports from Madrid, Spain with the latest on the fate of AH5017, which was owned and staffed by the Spanish firm Swiftair:

Swiftair confirmed that the two pilots and four cabin crew are all Spanish, and said that contact had been lost with the plane 50 minutes after it took off from Burkina Faso this morning for Algiers.

The company said it was trying to establish the nationalities of those on board and were coordinating with the Spanish foreign ministry.

"At this moment we have emergency teams and company personnel working ‎to establish what happened and as soon as we know more details we will release new statements," it said in a statement, according to Spanish websites.

According to Algeria media reserves of kerosene on the plane could have run out after an hour.

Spain's ministry for development and transport ‎has called a crisis cabinet and is in touch with the company and authorities in Burkino Faso, Mali and Algeria.

Jose Manuel Margallo, Spain's foreign minister described the situation as "confusing" and is in touch with his Algerian counterpart Ramatane Lamama, as well as the Spanish prime minister.

Speaking on an office visit to Tunisia he said "the situation is very confused."

14.11 "I can confirm that it has crashed," the unnamed Algerian official who spoke to Reuters has said, declining to give details of where the plane was or what caused the accident.

13.57 An Algerian aviation official has told Reuters the plane has crashed.

No more details are currently available on the location, but Niger security sources say planes are flying over its border with Mali to search for the plane.

13.51 Swiftair, which owned and staffed the plane, has a relatively clean safety record, with five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation.

Air Algerie's last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.

13.45 French fighter jets based in the region have been dispatched to try to locate the missing plane, French army spokesman Gilles Jaron has said.

Two Mirage 2000 jets based in Africa were dispatched to try to locate the Air Algerie plane that disappeared on Thursday.

They will search an area from its last known destination along its probable route.

13.42 David Millward explains why a Spanish-owned plane was being operated by an Algerian airline:

The aircraft was "wet leased" by Air Algerie from Swiftair [a Spanish airline company], which supplied both aircraft and crew. The practice of wet leasing is common in the industry. British Airways wet-leased a number of aircraft during the 2010 cabin crew dispute to maintain services.

13.30 There may have been as many as 80 French passengers on board AH5017, "airport sources" in Algeria have told EFE.

13.25 The Telegraph's David Millward, former transport editor, has been following events from the US:

 David Soucie, a former investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration, has told CNN: “There is no reason to think there is anything mechanically wrong with the plane. There is some reason that it flew over restricted airspace.”

Speaking on CNN he adds that field could have been an issue when the pilot had to make a decision what route should be taken to avoid the storm.

13.19 Mike Pflanz reports for The Telegraph from Nairobi:

 A European diplomat in Ouagadougou said that there was limited information available from the country's civil aviation authorities, but that he had been briefed that the aircraft left Burkina Faso airspace and had continued as planned over Malian territory.

There were reportedly many French citizens on the flight, which was likely to be routed over territory that was in the hands of al-Qaeda's affiliates in northern Mali until France intervened to push them out in 2013.

Despite this, the European diplomat said that there was no suggestion he had heard that the aircraft could have been specifically targeted by anti-French Islamist forces from the ground.

13.07 Amid conflicting reports about the missing plane's movements, here is a roundup of what we have heard so far.

- Flight AH5017 set off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, toward Algiers, Algeria, at 0117 local time [02.17am UK time].

- It flew northward, into Mali airspace.

- Burkina Faso air traffic control handed over to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, just across the border from Mali, at 1:38am local time [02.38 UK time].

- At around this time AH5017 was asked to change route because of a storm.

- The last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 01.55am [02.55am UK time] when it was flying over Gao, Mali.

- Niger air traffic controllers have reportedly said their said last contact with the flight was just after 4:30am local time (04.30am UK), suggesting it may have entered Niger air space, though this is yet unconfirmed

12.58 Burkina Faso authorities have set up a crisis unit in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families of people on the flight, reportsReuters.

A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country - which lies on the plane's likely flight path - was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.

Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali's National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight.

"We do not know if the plane is Malian territory," he told Reuters. "Aviation authorities are mobilised in all the countries concerned - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain."

12.56 The Air Algerie flight disappeared over northern Mali, France's transport minister has confirmed.

12.54 Fifty French people were on board according the plane's passenger list, an Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso has toldReuters.

12.51 The missing Air Algerie flight AH5017 was asked to change route at 01.38 (02.38 UK time) because of a storm, the Burkina Faso transport minister has said.

However, it has also been reported that air traffic controllers in both Algerian and Niger had contact with it later.

12.42 "There were likely French people on board, and if there were French people on board there were certainly many of them," Frederic Cuvillier, France's transport minister, has told reporters.

12.33 The first details on the 110 passengers on board flight AH5017 - the French transport minister has said that "likely many" French citizens would have been on board the flight, which has disappeared.

12.28 More details are emerging of the final minutes of contact with the plane.

An Algerian aviation official has told Reuters that the last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 0155 GMT (02.55am UK time) when it was flying over Gao, Mali.

Aviation authorities in Burkina Faso say they handed the flight to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, at 1:38am local time (02.38 UK time). They said last contact with the flight was just after 4:30am local time (04.30 UK).

12.22 More reports are emerging that the flight was asked to change course midflight in order to avoid the path of another plane, again unconfirmed.

12.19 Chinese state television is now reporting that the plane has crashed in Niger. It has not yet been possible to verify this information.

12.07 This map, based on information from the Federal Aviation Administration and International Civil Aviation Organisation, depicts how Mali is considered by US airlines to be one of the world's "high risk" flight zones.

Burkina Faso is the country directly south of Mali - Algeria is directly north of the country.

11.58 Following early reports of poor visibility, Mali is at the end of its dry season, during which the harmattan, a dry, hot wind that blows from the east out of the Sahara, "sweeps the soil into dusty whirlwinds and is accompanied by daytime temperatures of about 104 to 113 °F (40 to 45 °C)", accoridng to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The weather in Mali today is described as "mostly cloudy".

11.46 Flight AH5017 was in Malian air space approaching the border with Algeria when contact was lost, a source from Air Algerie has reportedly told AFP.

The plane was not far from the Algerian frontier when the crew was asked to make a detour because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk of collision with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route.

Contact was lost after the change of course.

11.32 The missing airplane is owned by Spanish private airline Swiftair, and operated by Air Algerie, according to Reuters:

Spanish private airline company Swiftair on Thursday said it had lost contact with one of its airplane operated by Air Algerie with 110 passengers and six crew members on board.

The company said in a notice posted on its website that the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 local time [02.17am UK time] and was supposed to land in Algiers at 0510 local time but never reached its destination.

11.27 Mali - the shortest flight path for AH5017 - is currently considered a "high risk" flight zone by US airlines, according to this Wall Street Journal graphic.

However, a senior French official has told AP it is unlikely that fighters in Mali had weaponry that could shoot down a plane:

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak for attribution, said the fights have shoulder-fired weapons which could not hit an aircraft at cruising altitude.

^{General view of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (NEIL COOPER/ALAMY)}

11.25 Contact was lost with the plane some time after 01.55GMT (02.55 UK), according the official Algerian news agency.

"In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," the agency quoted the airline as saying.

11.22 The flight code was AH5017, according to AP, and originated in the Burkina Faso capital city of Ouagadougou.

Ougadougou is in a nearly straight line south of Algiers, passing over Mali where unrest continues in the north.

11.16 Air Algerie is the national airline of Algeria, flying to 28 countries including the United Kingdom.

It is not yet clear what route the plane was taking when it went missing, but would most likely have been flying over either Mali or Niger.

11.10 A plane carrying 110 passengers from Burkina Faso to Algeria has gone missing, according to reports. The plane was an Air Algerie aircraft, and lost contact with air traffic controllers 50 minutes after takeoff.