An Air Algérie flight en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers with a reported 116 people aboard has crashed near the border of Niger and Mali, Reuters reports. It’s the third large-scale passenger air disaster in just over a week, following the downing of MH17 in the Ukraine last Thursday and Wednesday’s crash in Taiwan, in which at least 48 individuals died. From Reuters:
There were few clear indications of what might of happened to the aircraft, or whether there were casualties, but Burkino Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedrago said it asked to change route at 0138 GMT (9.38 p.m. EDT) because of a storm in the area.
“I can confirm that it has crashed,” the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.
Weather also appears to have been a factor in the Taiwan crash, which occurred in what CNN describes as “heavy rain.”
In yet another air tragedy, the body of 17-year-old Indiana pilot named Haris Suleman, who was attempting to fly around the world with his father, was found Wednesday in the Pacific Ocean after a crash between American Samoa and Honolulu. Suleman’s father Babar has not been found.
