CNN screen shot

Just a week after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 killed 298 people in eastern Ukraine, another passenger jet has apparently crashed. On Thursday, Air Algerie Flight 5017, which was carrying 116 people, fell out of radar contact about 50 minutes post-takeoff from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and the airline has since released information that wreckage has been located in Mali.

CNN brought word of the latest air-travel tragedy later that day:

Air Algerie said via Twitter that the plane has apparently crashed in the Tilemsi area, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the southeastern city of Gao.

Flight 5017 lost radar contact 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, early Thursday. It was supposed to arrive at Algiers’ Houari Boumediene Airport about four hours later.

Ouagadougou Airport said in a statement on its website that French forces stationed in the area had detected the wreck of the plane between Gao and the town of Kidal, in a desert zone that is very difficult to access.

The plane’s flight path was through a potentially turbulent area with thunderstorms in the region, and the pilot had reportedly requested to change direction before losing contact about 17 minutes later. Flight 5017 was bound for Algiers, Algeria, from Burkina Faso.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson

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