The Air Algerie plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Burkina Faso in west Africa was destroyed the moment it hit the ground, killing all 116 people on board, French officials said Friday.
Flight AH5017 was on its way to the Algerian capital Algiers when it crashed near Mali's border with Burkina Faso on Thursday, the BBC reported.
French President Francois Hollande said French troops recovered one of the aircraft's two black boxes at the crash site in Mali's Gossi region, Fox News reported. Human remains and debris were also found near the Malian village of Boulikessi, Burkina Faso officials 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 in the area," General Gilbert Diendere, head of the committee investigating the crash, told Fox News.
Nearly half of the passengers were French citizens, as well as 27 from Burkina Faso, eight from Lebanon and six from Algeria.
Other victims were from Canada, Nigeria, Egypt, Belgium, Germany, Mali, Cameroon, Luxemburg, Switzerland and Ukraine, Transport Minister for Burkina Faso Jean Bertin Ouedraogo told Fox News.
French investigators cannot definitively say what caused the MD-83 plane's downfall.
"The aircraft was destroyed at the moment it crashed," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told French radio RTL, according to the BBC.
"We think the aircraft crashed for reasons linked to the weather conditions, although no theory can be excluded at this point," Cazeneuve said.
Private airline Swiftair, which owns the Air Algerie-operated plane, lost contact with the flight about 50 minutes after if left Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Wednesday night. Niger air control received a final message from the plane at 9: 30 p.m. ET asking to switch routes due to heavy rainfall, Ouedraogo told Fox News. The plane was reported missing the next morning.
Though officials believe the cause of the crash was weather related, they are covering all possibilities, including terrorism.
"Terrorist groups are in the zone," Cazeneuve said according to Fox News. "We know these groups are hostile to Western interests."
