1>AH5017

Air Algerie plane crash: mystery of how the plane came down in terrorist heartla
nd:
Air Algerie flight disappeared from radar screens over Mali 50 minutes after tak
e off en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers a
nd six crew on board including 51 French nationals.
File photo: Air Algerie plane parking in the international airport of Algiers.
Almost exactly a week after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a sur
face-to-air missile while flying over Ukraine, officials were unable to provide
an explanation for the crash in Africa.
However, there was speculation the plane crash was an act of terrorism.
The Air Algerie flight disappeared from radar screens over Mali 50 minutes after
take off en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers at 1.47am local t
ime over Mali.
The pilot had contacted Niger s control tower in Niamey to change course because o
f a storm in the Sahara,Many were said to be expatriates travelling back to Fran
ce for the holidays. In the hours after the flight was reported to be missing.
After a day of fruitless searches, the missing jet had been spotted between
Aguelhoc and Kidal an inhospitable area in the desert and a hotbed of Islamist e
xtremism.
PICT:Site of the Air Algerie flight AH5017 plane crash in Mali (ECPAD/AP)
Before vanishing, the pilots sent a final message to ask Niger air control to ch
ange its route because of heavy rain, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Berti
n Ouedraogo said.
Contact was lost with the McDonnell-Douglas 83 at 1.47am, a little after the pil
ots said they were diverting from the route due to weather reasons,
2>MH370/MAS370:
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370)[a] was a scheduled international pas
senger flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that disappeared on 8 March 2014 at 0
1:20 MYT (17:20 UTC, 7 March),[b] after losing contact with air traffic control
less than an hour after takeoff.[3] At 07:24, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) reported t
he flight missing.[4] The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was carrying 12 Malaysia
n crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations.
The flight's signal was lost on secondary radar, and was soon[8][9] extended to
the Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea.[10][11][12] On 15 March, based on militar
y radar data and transmissions between the aircraft and an Inmarsat satellite, i
nvestigators concluded that the aircraft had diverted from its intended course a
nd headed west across the Malay Peninsula, then continued on a northern or south
ern track for around seven hours.
There has been no confirmation of any flight debris,[22][23][24][25][26] and no
crash site has been found,[27] resulting in many unofficial theories about its d
isappearance. The only evidence of the flight path after disappearing from milit
ary radar over the Andaman Sea is communications between the aircraft and a sate
llite over the Indian Ocean.
On 24 March, the Malaysian government, noting that the final location determined
by the satellite communication was far from any possible landing sites, conclud
ed that "flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
On 4 June 2014 Australian researchers released an audio recording of an underwat
er sound that they considered might be related to the final moments of the aircr
aft.
Lack of evidence in determining the cause of Flight 370's disappearance, indeed
even physical evidence that the aircraft crashed, raises many issues regarding r
esponsibility for the accident and payments made by insurance agencies. Under in
ternational aviation law, it is the carrier's responsibility to prove lack of fa
ult in an accident.
On 9 March 2014, members of the Chinese news media received an open letter that
claimed to be from the leader of the Chinese Martyrs Brigade, a previously unkno
wn group. The letter claimed that the loss of flight MH370 was in retaliation fo
r the Chinese government's response to the knife attacks at Kunming railway stat

ion on 1 March 2014 and part of the wider separatist campaign against Chinese co
ntrol over Xinjiang province. The letter also listed unspecified grievances agai
nst the Malaysian government.
onboard a Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft during a search and rescue (SAR) op
eration to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (Photo).