Blogs

Video After The Jump

(Reuters) - An Air Algerie flight crashed on Thursday en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers on board, an Algerian aviation official said.

There were few clear indications of what might have happened to the aircraft, or whether there were casualties, but Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedrago said it asked to change route at 0138 GMT because of a storm in the area.

"I can confirm that it has crashed," the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.

Almost half of the passengers were French citizens, an airline official said.

Two French fighter jets based in the region have been dispatched to try to locate the airliner along its probable route, a French army spokesman said. Niger security sources said planes were flying over the border region with Mali to search for the flight. Algeria's state news agency APS said authorities lost contact with flight AH 5017 an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, but other officials gave differing accounts of the times of contact, adding to confusion about the plane's fate.

Swiftair, the private Spanish company that owns the plane, confirmed it had lost contact with the MD-83 operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.

A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country - which lies on the plane's likely flight path - was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.

Whatever the cause, another plane crash is likely to add to nerves in the industry after a Malaysia Airlines plane was downed over Ukraine last week, a TransAsia Airways crashed off Taiwan during a thunderstorm on Wednesday and airlines canceled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.

An Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso, Kara Terki, told a news conference that all the passengers on the plane were in transit, either for Europe, the Middle East or Canada.

He said the passenger list included 50 French, 24 Burkinabe, eight Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one Romanian. Lebanese officials said there were at least 10 Lebanese citizens on the flight.

A spokeswoman for SEPLA, Spain’s pilots union, said the six crew were from Spain. She could not give any further details.

REGIONAL SEARCH

Swiftair said on its website the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 GMT and was supposed to land in Algiers at 0510 GMT but never reached its destination.

An Algerian aviation official said the last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 0155 GMT when it was flying over Gao, Mali.

Aviation authorities in Burkina say they handed the flight to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, at 1:38 a.m. (0138 GMT). They said the last contact with the flight was just after 4:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).

Burkina Faso minister Ouedrago said the flight asked the control tower in Niamey to change route at 0138 GMT because of a storm in the Sahara.

However, a source in the control tower in Niamey, who declined to be identified, said it had not been contacted by the plane, which in theory should have flown over Mali. Burkinabe authorities have set up a crisis unit in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families.

Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali's National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight.

"We do not know if the plane is Malian territory," he told Reuters. "Aviation authorities are mobilized in all the countries concerned - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain."

Aviation websites said the missing aircraft, one of four MD-83s owned by Swiftair, was 18-years-old. The aircraft's two engines are made by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies.

U.S. planemaker McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing, stopped producing the MD-80 airliner family in 1999 but it remains in widespread use. According to British consultancy Flightglobal Ascend, there are 482 MD-80 aircraft in operation, many of them in the United States.

"Boeing is aware of the report (on the missing aircraft). We are awaiting additional information," a spokesman for the planemaker said.

Swiftair has a relatively clean safety record, with five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation.

Air Algerie's last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.

(This story was refiled to fix grammar in paragraph 2)

(Additional reporting by Patrick Markey, Daniel Flynn, David Lewis, Mathieu Bonkoungou,Julien Toyer, Tracy Rucinski, Laila Bassam, Marine Pennetier and Tim Hepher; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Alison Williams)

Air Algerie plane: Flight details released

Search underway for missing Algerie flight

Missing Flight AH5017 Disappears From Radar in Algeria

Follow Me

$IDD RAMONE IS A DOPE UNSIGNED ARTISTS COMING OUT OF WEST HOUSTON PUTTING HIS STAMP ON THE MAP WITH THE HARDEST MIXTAPE OF THE SUMMER CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO TAKE A LISTEN AND SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @WaveyRamone

[Mixtape] FishGrease (@FishGrease_smg) & Merk (@Scrooge941) - Thicka Den Wata Hosted by the one and only DJ Winn (@DJWinn727)

Video After The Jump

Actress Lela Loren plays the beautiful, but equally as tough lawyer Angela Valdes in the STARZ television show, Power.

During a recent interview on Chelsea Lately she discusses what it's like to work with 50 Cent, who is the show's executive producer and plays the role of Kanan. She also speaks on how hard it is to make the sex scenes look authentic and sensual when they're just the opposite during filming

Follow Me

Stay tuned for part 2!

Thisis50 & Young Jack Thriller recently spoke with Cormega for an exclusive interview!

Cormega speaks on Today's generation, new single "Industry", Money, advice from His Grandma & much more!

Follow @realcormega @jackthriller @thisis50

Follow Me

Super producer DJ Mustard recruited some of the hottest names in the business for his forthcoming album entitled 10 Summers.

Features include Dom Kennedy, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, YG, Lil Boosie, Yo Gotti, Young Jeezy, Ty Dolla $ign, Nipsey Hussle, Fabolous, Wiz Khalifa and more.

He's partnered with Google Play to release the project for free on August 12th.

10 Summers Tracklist:

01. Low Low (feat. Nipsey Hussle, TeeCee & RJ)
02. Ghetto Tales (feat. Jay 305 & TeeCee)
03. Throw Your Hood Up (feat. Dom Kennedy, Royce & RJ)
04. No Reason (feat. YG, Jeezy, Nipsey Hussle & RJ)
05. Giuseppee (feat. 2 Chainz, Jeezy & Yo Gotti)
06. Face Down (feat. Lil Wayne, Big Sean, YG & Lil Boosie)
07. Down On Me (feat. 2 Chainz & Ty Dolla $ign)
08. Can’t Tell Me Shit (feat. IamSu! & AKAFrank)
09. Tinashe Checks In (Interlude)
10. 4 Digits (feat. Fabolous & Eric Bellinger)
11. Ty Dolla $ign Checks In (Interlude)
12. Deep (feat. Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa & TeeFlii)

Follow Me

Video After The Jump

Slaine "Getting High" official music video directed by Jon Knautz. This track is available as an exclusive iTunes bonus track on Slaine's new album "The King of Everything Else" available at http://smarturl.it/KingOfEverything

http://slainesworld.com

Follow Me

Reggaeton artist Magic Juan decides to give DJ Snake and Lil Jon's hit single "Turn Down for What" a remix. Give it a listen up top.

Follow Magic Juan

https://twitter.com/MAGICJUANELDURO

Video After The Jump

Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Bill Paxton star in the upcoming crime/drama/thriller Nightcrawler. The movie was written and directed by Dan Gilroy.

Plot:

Nightcrawler is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling -- where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou thrives. In the breakneck, ceaseless search for footage, he becomes the star of his own story.

Nightcrawler opens nationwide on October 17th.

Follow Me

Video After The Jump

Prodigy and Havoc, together known as Mobb Deep, give MTV the green light to world premiere their music video for "Low" featuring Mack Wilds. Directed by Shomi Patwary. This is off of the album, The Infamous Mobb Deep, available now on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/infamous-mobb-deep-deluxe/id845634193.

Follow Me

Video After The Jump

Men have to love the fact that twerking has gone from the hood other countries around the world. I just hope they don't think Miley Cyrus invented it.

Regardless, check out this twerk battle during the Siberian Dancehall Contest 2014 at the Fraules Dance Centre. Ladies if you're from the area they even offer lessons http://www.fr-dc.ru/.

Siberian Twerk Dancehall Contest 2014

Twerk judge demo Fraules - Siberian Dancehall Contest 2014

Follow Me

Back with another visual of his latest mixtape "Dont Hate Me Hate Your Job" Arlis Raps over a old school sample beat basically letting a special lady know that his riding wit her Till the End.

Follow Me

Video After The Jump

Nationalist and communist politicians fight it out in the Ukraine parliament in Kiev on Tuesday, July 22.

The Independent reports that brawls broke out after disagreements regarding "a presidential decree was approved to call up more reserves to defend the country against the growing numbers of Russian troops on the country’s eastern border."

The politicians can be seen on video punching, choking and shoving each other. Watch the pure madness below.

Raw: Fight Breaks Out in Ukraine Parliament

Brawl breaks out in Ukrainian parliament

Kiev Rada punch-up (episode 300+): Far-right vs Communists

Follow Me

Our thoughts are with all those on board TransAsia Airways #GE222, their families and loved ones.

— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) July 23, 2014

Video And Pics After The Jump

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Associated Press) — A plane landing in stormy weather crashed outside an airport on a small Taiwanese island late Wednesday, and the transport minister said 47 people were trapped and feared dead.

Another 11 people were injured when the ATR-72 operated by Taiwan's TransAsia Airways crashed on Penghu, an island in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China, Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih was quoted as saying by the government's Central News Agency. The plane was arriving from Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan.

The twin-engine turboprop plane crashed while making a second landing attempt with a total of 58 passengers and crew members aboard, according to Yeh.

The news agency had earlier quoted a local fire chief as saying 51 people had been killed.

The plane crashed in the village of Xixi outside the airport. Photos in local media showed firefighters using flashlights to look at wreckage in the darkness, and buildings and cars damaged by debris.

About 200 military personnel were sent to help recover the people who were on the plane, Taiwanese Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Luo Shou-he said, according to the Central News Agency.

The ministry said military vehicles and ambulances were rushing people to hospitals and an air force rescue team was on standby to transfer survivors to Taiwan's main island if needed for treatment, the agency reported.

The flight left Kaohsiung at 4:53 p.m. for Magong on Penghu, according to the head of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, Jean Shen. The plane lost contact with the tower at 7:06 p.m. after saying it would make a second landing attempt.

Visibility as the plane approached was 1,600 meters (one mile), which met standards for landing, and two flights had landed before GE222, one at 5:34 p.m. and the other at 6:57 p.m., the aviation agency reported.

#TransAsia Airways plane crash: A woman whose daughter was onboard broke down in tears at the airport; 47 died pic.twitter.com/5xbygRUQn1

— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) July 23, 2014

But the Central News Agency, citing the county fire department, said it appeared heavy rain reduced visibility and the pilot was forced to pull up and make the second landing attempt.

Taiwan was battered by Typhoon Matmo early Tuesday morning, and the Central Weather Bureau warned of heavy rain through the evening, even after the center of the storm had moved west to mainland China.

As you can see, the mangled wreckage of buildings and plane, after it tried emergency landing during Typhoon weather pic.twitter.com/oc0QO9Dghk

— Danny Lee 李嘉洪 (@JournoDannyAsia) July 23, 2014

Shen said the plane was 14 years old.

In October 2013, a Lao Airlines ATR-72 crashed during a heavy storm as it approached Pakse Airport in southern Laos, killing all 49 people on board.

Taiwan plane crash: Over 40 people killed

Photo Sources: Associated Press, New York Daily News

Follow Me