France ‘to Receive Mali Crash Bodies’

{{France’s president has promised that the bodies of 118 people who died when an Air Algerie plane crashed in Mali will be brought to France.}}

Francois Hollande was speaking after he met victims’ families in Paris. Fifty-four French nationals were on board flight AH5017. There were no survivors.

The plane was flying from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, to Algiers.

Earlier, UN search teams scouring the remote site found the second flight data recorder from the plane.

Three days of national mourning are to be observed across France from Monday, Mr Hollande’s office said.

Among the French contingent on board flight AH5017 was a family of 10.

Algeria is already observing three days of mourning for the crash.

Mr Hollande said a memorial would be erected at the site and that those families who wished to do so would be able to visit the site.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane early on Thursday after pilots reported severe sandstorms.

{wirestory}