Air Algerie Loses Contact with Jet on Sahara Route
French jets are searching for an Algerian plane that went missing over the Sahara. Control lost contact with Air Algerie flight AH 5017 just before 14 hundred GMT about an hour after it left Burkina Faso. It was heading towards Algiers when it reportedly hit very bad weather, according to authorities. The plane belongs to Spanish private company Swiftair and was carrying 110 passengers and six crew members. Many of the passengers are reportedly French. Only one official so far says it has crashed. There are some reports that the wreckage has been found in Mali but that cannot yet be confirmed.