[Deluge]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28460625

Quote:

Algeria's national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost contact with one of its planes flying from Burkina Faso to Algiers across the Sahara.

Contact was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, the airline said.

The passenger airliner was last seen at 0155 GMT, it added. It should have landed at 0510.

Flight AH 5017 had 110 passengers and six crew on board, Spanish airline Swiftair, which owns the plane, said.

"In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," Air Algerie officials, quoted by APS news agency (in French), said.

'Poor visibility'
The plane is operated by Air Algerie and chartered from Swiftair.

In a statement (in Spanish), Swiftair said that the aircraft was an MD83 and that they were unable to establish contact with the plane.

An Algerian official had previously told Reuters that the plane was an Airbus A320.

An unnamed Air Algerie company source, speaking to AFP news agency, said: "The plane was not far from the Algerian frontier when the crew was asked to make a detour because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk of collision with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route."

"Contact was lost after the change of course."

Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times a week, AFP reported.

Algerian nationals were among those on board, Algerian newspaper El-Nahar reported.

In February, a military plane in Algeria crashed, killing 77 people on board.

The Hercules C-130 crashed into a mountain in Oum al-Bouaghi province, en route to Constantine, in bad weather conditions. Only one person on board survived.

Edit: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28465010

Quote:

French Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier: "There were likely French people on board, and if there were French people on board, there were certainly many of them"

French and UN troops in northern Mali say they understand the plane came down between the north-eastern towns of Gao and Tessalit. The Nigerian general commanding 1,200 UN troops in Timbuktu said work was only just beginning on trying to trace the aircraft. General Koko Essien told the BBC the area leading up to the Algerian border was vast and sparsely populated. Brigadier General Essien said the weather had been bad in the region overnight.

[Sourcecode]

Cheap flights for the next couple weeks?!

[Kdog]

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. I've checked Malaysian Airlines website and the fares are high and under the promotion section there's jack shit. Very confident airline ?

[Maciano]

Holy shit.

Poor people.

[Mike5055]

Even if you survived the plane crash, survival in the Sahara has got to be tough, even for a few days.

[Mentavious]

(07-24-2014 07:12 AM)Kdog Wrote:  

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. I've checked Malaysian Airlines website and the fares are high and under the promotion section there's jack shit. Very confident airline ?

Give it a couple of weeks.

Malaysia had a 50% off fare a couple of weeks after the accident.

[Emancipator]

[TravelerKai]

Just when you thought that plane crash in Taiwan was going to end it for the year...... Just keeps getting worse. I honestly do not feel like flying anywhere for a while myself.

[jessup25]

Thanks, I just had to catch this while I'm sitting in an airport [/code]

[Hans Dix]

I literally had to post this to facebook because everyone was freaking the fuck out

http://www.flixxy.com/scheduled-airline-...ldwide.htm

That's just 24 hours

Literally tens of thousands of flights each day. The odds of you dying in a plane crash, even with the recent figures, are still so statistically low that it shouldn't concern you at all more than getting in a car. I think it's like .000007% taking into account the two downed planes last week.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

If I had to choose, I'd rather have my airplane crash in the desert than the ocean...

[3extra]

Looks like they've located the wreckage:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ju...found-mali

[Mentavious]

(07-24-2014 11:08 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

If I had to choose, I'd rather have my airplane crash in the desert than the ocean...

I always have thought it would be better to crash in the ocean. At least that way the ocean would soften the impact if the pilot was able to keep it out of a nosedive

[Sourcecode]

I know its a different story.. but remember flight tickets right after 9/11

no one wanted to fly...you could damn near reach in the garbage and get a plane ticket

[Foolsgo1d]

As sad as these events are for those concerned I dont see how these events are deserving of the "oh hell I aint flying" comments being thrown around.

More people died today driving on the road than these accidents.

Now if airplanes were targeted by some sort of EMP weapon then yeah you shouldn't be flying and I reckon the FAA would ground ALL flights everywhere if that happened. People are over reacting.

[PapayaTapper]

(07-24-2014 02:16 PM)Sourcecode Wrote:  

I know its a different story.. but remember flight tickets right after 9/11

no one wanted to fly...you could damn near reach in the garbage and get a plane ticket

True...I flew LA to Paris in Dec 01 for like $500. It was a 747 with about 30 people on it. That was in business class too. About 3 rows ahead of me were Liv Tyler , Sean Bean and his son on their way back from New Zealand where they'd been filming one of the LOTR movies. The next day was when the shoe bomber guy was on a flight from Paris to Miami.

Everybody was freaked the fuck out.

On my return flight a few weeks later there were two "bomb scares" at the airport. Each time someone put down a duffle bag or back pack and left it there too long. This french swat-like bomb squad would rush in and throw this heavy ass dog sized igloo over the suspected "bomb" while clearing out the entire terminal. Then like an hour later youd hear the muffled "whoomp" where theyd try to detonate the bag under the igloo with some type of charge. 30 min later theyd let every one back in to the terminal. I was told this was happening almost daily. Happened twice the day I was there and missed my connection in Chicago.

Like Alan says in The Hangover..."Thanks alot Osama"

[TravelerKai]

(07-24-2014 02:07 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  

(07-24-2014 11:08 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

If I had to choose, I'd rather have my airplane crash in the desert than the ocean...

I always have thought it would be better to crash in the ocean. At least that way the ocean would soften the impact if the pilot was able to keep it out of a nosedive

At those speeds, even water is like concrete. Also, even if you could float on those rafts or the life vest if they survived the impact, the sharks might get you.

At least you have a chance to avoid stepping on a saw scaled viper or puff adder/scorpion etc. You could check the wreckage for water bottles and maybe find a compass among the wreckage. Your cellphone may give off a signal that can be captured or the GPS might even pic up a satellite. If you are bleeding you can tear a cloth off a dead body and put it on your wound. Try doing all this while in water.

Why do you think saliors, pirates, and privateers made fun of other men by calling them landlubbers/landlovers? The ocean is hardcore.

[weambulance]

Seems like you'd be better off landing fairly level in flattish sand/dirt than water, because in water you're more likely to catch a wing tip and start rolling. Even if the plane doesn't rip itself to pieces, you have a great chance of breaking your neck just because your head will be whipping around. But I'd take water over big-ass dunes.

Yeaaah I'm just going to be over here hoping my plane never goes down.

[big poppa]

I think the thing that is scariest is than when you are in a plane, your life is in the hands of other factors.. The pilot, the weather, crazed people who want to shoot you down, etc. You're a sitting duck.

At least if you're driving a car you have some control over the circumstances.

Nothing you can do in a nose dive. If the brakes in your car fail at least there's a fighting chance.

[Beyond Borders]

Fuck, Man.

Somebody is trolling the world.

I suspect Ali or El Mechanico.

[Beyond Borders]

On a serious note, I'd fly Malaysia Air in a fucking heartbeat right now. Probably the safest planes to be on at the moment.

[Chaos]

I can't recall how many times I had had the dream of crashing with a airplane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

[bojangles]

It's been proven that impact on water is worse than impact on land.

Airlines are expensive right now, cunts.