Air Algerie flight with 116 on board disappears from radar over west Africa

An Air Algerie flight from Burkina Faso in west Africa  to Algiers has disappeared , according to the official Algerian News agency.

"Air navigation services have lost contact with an Air Algerie plane Thursday flying from Ouagadougou to Algiers, 50 minutes after takeoff," the statement from national news agency APS, said.

Flight AH5017, carrying 116 people ob board, disappeared from the radar 50 minutes into flight. The aircraft  lost ground contact while it was in Malian airspace approaching the border with Algeria, reports AFP quoting company sources.

"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," the Air Algerie source said, reports AFP. "Contact was lost after the change of course."

United Nation troops stationed in Mali told BBC that they believe the plane came down in a sparsely populated area between Gao and Tessalit, and the region has been experiencing bad weather conditions since overnight. The situation in Mali itself is unstable with Jihadist group being active in the area. Many parts of the country are mired in conflict.

The plane, an MD83, is owned by Spanish Airline Swiftair and is chartered out to Air Algerie. The company posted a statement on its website saying that the aircraft left Burkina Faso airport at 0117 local time and never reached its destination of Algiers.

The statement also said that the company had initiated an "emergency plan" to search for flight AH5017.

Earlier in February, a military plane crashed in Algeria killing 77 people aboard, there was one survivor, reports AFP.