Jetliner Wreckage Found in Mali

UAGADOUGO, Burkina Faso (AP) -- The wreckage of the Air Algeria plane that went missing Thursday has been found about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali, a presidential aide said.

`'We sent men with the agreement of the Mali government to the site and they found the wreckage of the plane with the help of the inhabitants of the area," said Gen. Gilbert Diendere, a close aide to president Blaise Compaore and head of the crisis committee set up to investigate the flight.

`'They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered," he said.

He told The Associated Press that they went to the area after hearing from a resident who described seeing a plane go down.

The Air Algerie jetliner owned Swift Air in Spain was carrying 116 people. It vanished Thursday in a rainstorm over restive northern Mali, and French officials had said it has probably crashed - the third major international aviation disaster in a week.