The Ouagadougou Airport administration confirmed the crash of the Algerian airplane that went missing 50 minutes after it take-off from the Ouagadougou airport.
The officials said that the wreckage from the flight has been spotted by a local in a “very inaccessible desert area” midway between Gao and Kidal in Mali.
Moumouni Barro, Burkina Faso’s director of airports, added that the crashing plane was spotted by a resident of Gossi, a small village in Mali around 1:50 a.m., during a heavy sandstorm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J1Z78nfQvE
A search and rescue mission is underway, but it is very likely that all passengers passed away during the tragic accident.
The same airport officials confirmed on their official Facebook page that Mariela Castro was among the Air Algerie AH5017 passengers.
She is the daughter of current Cuban president Raúl Castro and a well-known feminist and revolutionary.
“Among the passengers on flight AH5017 will have been two European officials of French nationality stationed in Ouagadougou and Mariela Castro, niece of Fidel Castro, former Cuban head of state,” the Facebook Post read.
The passengers lists includes some 50 French nationals, 24 Burkinabes, eight Libyans, 6 Algerians, 5 canadion, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian, one Cuban and one Romanian.
Reports say that there were at least three couples with 10 children.
The Moroccan Times.
