France announced yesterday there were no survivors among the 116 people on board the Air Algerie flight that crashed over Mali, saying bad weather was the likely cause of the disaster.
“Sadly, there are no survivors,” French President Francois Hollande said on TV, a day after flight AH017, carrying 51 French nationals, went down shortly after take-off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
The wreckage of the McDonnell Douglas 83 plane, operated by Spanish charter firm Swiftair on behalf of Air Algerie, was located 50km north of the Burkina Faso border in Mali’s Gossi region.
Photo: AFP
In addition to the French victims, passengers and crew hailed from Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Algeria, Spain, Canada, Germany and Luxembourg.
It was unclear exactly how many people were on board, as Swiftair put the number at 116, while the French presidency said 118 passengers and crew were on the jet.
It was on its way to Algiers when it crashed amid reports of heavy storms in the area, shortly after the pilots radioed in that they were diverting course due to difficult weather conditions.
A witness reported seeing the plane “falling” in the difficult-to-access Gossi region.
French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve said meteorological conditions appeared to be the most likely cause of the accident — the worst air tragedy for French nationals since the crash of the Air France A330 linking Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009.
French Minister of Transport Frederic Cuvillier added that the possibility of a strike from the ground had been ruled out “from the start,” quashing speculation that rebels in Mali’s restive north could have shot the plane down.
However, Hollande insisted that no potential cause for the accident was being left out.
Swiftair has a good safety record and the head of France’s DGAC civil aviation authority said on Thursday that the MD-83 had passed through France this week and been given the all-clear.
Mali, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and France were all coordinating their search efforts, and the plane wreckage was located by a French drone thanks to information provided by Burkinabe authorities.
The black box flight recorder of the plane had been recovered by French military forces on site and was being taken to Gao, Hollande said.
Whatever the cause of the crash, the human face of the tragedy was becoming ever-more poignant as the hours went by.
One French family had seven people on the plane, a brother of one passenger said.
“There was my brother, his wife and their four children, plus my nephew,” Amadou Ouedraogo said via telephone.
Meanwhile, the small town of Menet in central France was left devastated when residents found out an entire family that lived there was on board flight AH5017.
Bruno Cailleret and Caroline Boisnard “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, adding that Boisnard’s mother was also on the plane.
“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,” she said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique