International
An Algerian military aircraft crashed in eastern Algeria on Tuesday killing 77 passengers, the country's Defense Ministry said. Only one passenger survived.
The C-130 Hercules aircraft went down in a mountainous area in Oum al-Bouaghi province, around 310 miles east of the capital Algiers, private TV station Ennahar reported. Witnesses say its wing clipped a mountain, and then the aircraft broke in three pieces on the ground.
The sole survivor, a soldier, was taken to a military hospital in Constantine, suffering from head trauma, public radio reported.
Most of the passengers were off-duty military personnel and their families, who boarded the transport plane from Algeria's southern Tamanrasset province.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that the official mourning would begin on Wednesday and praised the dead soldiers as "martyrs."
Recovery teams have located one of the aircraft's two black box flight recorders, Algerian newspaper El Watan reported on its website.
An Algerian intelligence service officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, cited poor weather conditions as the cause of the crash.
The defense ministry said in a statement that "a commission of inquiry was created and sent to the scene to determine the causes and exact circumstances of this tragic accident."
The transport plane took off from Algeria's southern Tamanrasset province and was bound for the eastern city of Constantine, the Algerian Press Service reported.
Tamanrasset, in the far south of Algeria, near the border with Mali, is the main base for the country's southern military operations.
Extra troops and equipment have been stationed there in recent months as part of efforts to beef up surveillance of Algeria's frontiers with Mali and Libya, following a deadly hostage siege at a desert gas plant in January 2013.
The crash is the worst in Algeria since 2003 when an Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Tamanrasset, killing 102 people.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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Extra troops and equipment have been stationed there in recent months as part of efforts to beef up surveillance of Algeria's frontiers with Mali and Libya, following a deadly hostage seige at a desert gas plant in January 2013. The crash is the worst in Algeria since 2003 when an Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. |
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Source:
Agencies
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Extra troops and equipment have been stationed there in recent months as part of efforts to beef up surveillance of Algeria's frontiers with Mali and Libya, following a deadly hostage seige at a desert gas plant in January 2013. The crash is the worst in Algeria since 2003 when an Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. |
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Source:
Agencies
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Co
ntent on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.
|
In the fight to keep an immigrant family together, workers' centre uncovers a little-known deportation initiative.
|
|
People continue to die near former front lines, but one NGO is trying to help those affected to recover.
|
|
The number of Syrians fleeing the civil war and seeking shelter in Malaysia has nearly tripled in recent months.
|
|
Human Rights Watch alleges that Egyptian and Sudanese security forces colluded in the trafficking of Eritrean migrants.
|
|
With dozens of political activists murdered in January alone, fears for the country's future are growing.
|
Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.