Air Algerie Plane Disappears From Radar

French policemen surround an Air Algerie passenger plane checking a luggage compartment on the tarmac of the suburban Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport Saturday April 26, 1997. Air Algerie, Algeria's national carrier... French policemen surround an Air Algerie passenger plane checking a luggage compartment on the tarmac of the suburban Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport Saturday April 26, 1997. Air Algerie, Algeria's national carrier, resumed flights Friday to Paris after a two-year hiatus instigated by French security concerns and prolonged by bickering on both sides. Flights were suspended in the summer of 1995, months after a highjacking of an Air France plane by Muslim militants waging an insurgency in Algeria since 1992.(AP Photo/Jacques Brinon) MORE LESS
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ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — An Air Algerie flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers disappeared from radar early Thursday, the official Algerian news agency said.

Air navigation services lost track of the plane after 0155 GMT, or 50 minutes after takeoff, the agency said. That means that Flight AH5017 had been missing for hours before the news was made public.

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

The flight path of the plane from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear.

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

However, a senior French official said it was 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.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. I know: “In a world where Obama allows horrors like Benghazi to go unaddressed, this sort of thing is inevitable.”

    How’d I do?

    Or, “George W. Bush kept us safe. What was so wrong about having real leaders to project citizens?”

  2. You go tthe Bush impression right. Complete with mangling the English language to slip in “project” citizens instead of “protect”

  3. I didn’t need to wake up to this. Cue Fox News to blame Obama in 4…3…2…

  4. Avatar for vonq vonq says:

    Interesting. I was telling my mother the other day that climate change may be increasing atmospheric disturbances and that air travel would be affected.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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