The search for the Air Algerie flight which vanished with 116 people on board en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers is centring on a 'vast strip' of land in Mali, France's foreign minister said today.
Amid conflicting reports, Laurent Fabius said no wreckage had yet been found, but believed the plane had 'probably crashed.'
Air navigation services lost track of the Swiftair MD-83 around 50 minutes into the flight after the crew reportedly asked to change course over fears it was flying into a storm.
The plane, which is operated by Air Algerie, was last picked up on radar at 1.55am GMT en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers.
It should have landed in the Algerian capital around three hours later, but didn't arrive.
Earlier, aviation officials had reportedly said debris from the plane had been spotted in a 'very inaccessible desert area' between Gao and Kidal in Mali.
But Mr Fabius said this afternoon that 'no trace' had been seen.
He said: 'The plane has probably crashed. The searches are focusing at this stage on a vast strip of Malian territory around the region of Gao.'
The list of passengers on AH5017 includes 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians and five Canadians.
There were also four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgium, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
The flight path of AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African nation of Burkina Faso, to Algiers was not immediately clear.
However, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedragor said the flight had been asked to change route because of a storm around 30 minutes after taking off.
A source from Air Algerie told the AFP news agency said contact was lost while it was still in Malian air space approaching the border with Algeria.
The source 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.'
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