Missing flight in West Africa

Flight AH 5017 was travelling from Burkina Faso in West Africa, to Algiers when air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilots.

The plane departed from Burkina Faso at 1245 am local time, which is 1.45 am Irish time.

It disappeared from radar 50 minutes into the flight.

The nationalities of the passengers are not known, although many of them are reported to be travelling on French passports.