Family of 10 die in plane crash

Little is left of the Air Algerie aircraft that crashed during a storm killing at least 116 people. Photo / AP

Flight that came down in bad weather third in a week of airline tragedies

France says there are no survivors from the Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali and several families have been been wiped out in the tragedy.

The crash - blamed on bad weather - was so bad that debris at the impact site was barely recognisable as parts of an aircraft.

Ten members of a French family were on board the plane, said the mayors of the towns where some of them lived.

It was unclear if 118 or 116 people were aboard the flight.

"Sadly, there are no survivors," President Francois Hollande said on television, a day after the plane, carrying 54 French nationals, went down shortly after take-off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

The McDonnell Douglas 83 jet, operated by Spanish charter firm Swiftair on behalf of Air Algerie, also had passengers and crew from Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Algeria, Spain, Canada, Germany and Luxembourg. The jet was on its way to Algiers when it crashed. There were storms in the area and the pilots radioed in that they were diverting course because of the weather.

The plane crash was the third in the space of just eight days, capping a disastrous week for the aviation industry.

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

And a Taiwanese aircraft crashed in torrential rain in Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 48.

- Telegraph Group Ltd, AFP