Air Algerie flight reportedly missing

From the BEA report

Access to the site was a lot easier than for MH17 no doubt.

In a surprising move, the Fr Gendarmerie announced that they have closed their investigation and the site is to be wrapped up with pieces of interest brought back to France (some said a memorial could be erected on the site):

“I have finished my investigations relating to accident investigation and identifying the victims,” said Colonel Patrick Touron, deputy head of the French Gendarmerie’s Criminal Research Institute.

“We scraped the sand and gathered everything so there is nothing belonging to a victim that could have been left behind,” Touron told AFP.

This closes a barely one week long on-site investigation.

As a side note:

it emerged that two people thought to have been on the plane had not boarded.

One of the two was an airline staff member whose name was in the list of passengers but who was not on the flight, Diendiere told AFP.
The second person had cancelled the booking the day before the flight but the change was not made to the list of passengers, he said.

Source:
http://www.franceinfo.fr/actu/monde/article/crash-du-ah5017-l-enquete-est-terminee-543801
enca.com
http://tuoitrenews.vn/

To my untrained eye, that looks like a high speed impact. There is hardly anything left!

Pictures and video emerging on the news websites. It appears that the plane hit the ground largely intact. One flight recorder recovered, not sure which.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28485503?

French presidency confirming that the plane went down and crashed near Gossi in Mali close to the border with the Burkina-Faso border.

Plane is “disintegrated”. Nobody seems to expect any survivor sadly

I flew that route several times in the last six months. The ITCZ is right over that area at this time of year, but not impossible to navigate around the storms.

This is the area looking towards Timbuktu in good weather

This is in the rainy season, same area :

And when you’re in it :

The wreckage has been found in a remote piece of dessert in Nothern Mali.
The plane was EC-LTV an MD83 of Swiftair

The nationality of the passengers

Sur les 116 personnes à bord :
20 passagers libanais
26 passagers burkinabè
51 passagers français
5 passagers canadiens
4 passagers allemands (german)
1 passager luxembourgeois
1 passager suisse
6 membres d’équipage espagnols

Source (in French)

http://www.aeroport-ouagadougou.com/informations_aeroport.php?idnew=154

Indeed a bad week for aviation

rgds
EC

They say bad news travels in threes. Sadly looking like a third airliner down.
At least they can find her which is something.

http://www.dailysabah.com/africa/2014/07/24/air-algerie-loses-contact-with-plane-after-takeoff

News is not looking good. Plane presumably down in Mali or maybe Niger.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/07/24/air-algerie-plane-disappears-from-radar/20936169/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D506360

Aircraft is reported as an MD-83 which took off from Burkina Faso enroute to Algiers.