Another shoot-down? Air Algerie flight over Mali disappears from radar

Initial reports -- which obviously could change later -- indicated the plane did not descend or ascend, did not turn. It just disappeared. It was there, and then it wasn't. The plane's normal flight path, flown about four times a week, according to The Independent in Great Britain, would be along the Ouagadougou-Algiers air route, which would take it through Mali air space.

Mali is mostly al-Qaeda controlled, but that control is concentrated in the north. The plane would have been flying into Mali at its southern boundary. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's national capitol, is about 120 south of the Mali border.

 

EDIT at 10:05 a.m. CT: Two French fighter jets, on a search mission requested by both the Algerian and Burkino Fasian governments, have located the wreckage of the plane near Gao, Mali. That's about 300 miles northeast of Ougadougou. Algerian and Burkino Fasian sources confirmed the flight crew had requested a course change due to unexpected heavy rains in the area, and a powerful sandstorm raging through central Mali. It was shortly after the request was made the plane disappeared.

The flight disappeared fifty minutes after takeoff, about ten minutes after it requested the course change. Radar never indicated the plane made the recommended maneuvers.

Malian al-Qaeda groups have publicly threatened French air traffic through Africa due to the French invasion of Mali to put down terrorist and resistance forces there.