A missing Air Algerie plane that lost contact en route from Burkina Faso is an Airbus A320 carrying 110 passengers to Algiers, an Algerian official said today.

Air navigation services lost track of the plane 50 minutes after take-off in the early hours of today.

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

The Air Algerie aircraft was en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso .

The flight path of Flight AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear. Ouagadougou is almost directly south of Algiers, passing over Mali where unrest continues in the north.

APS gave no details on the the number of passengers aboard flight AH 5017.

Irish Times