Algerian flight causes panic after vanishing

A PASSENGER plane sparked a massive alert after it declared a mid-air emergency and then disappeared from tracking devices – before landing safely.

The Air Algerie Boeing 737-600 took off from Algiers yesterday afternoon on a flight to Marseille but issued an emergency call shortly after take-off.

Flight tracking data showed the plane turning around and heading back towards the point where it took off.

Before the plane arrived, however, it disappeared from tracking systems, sparking an alert that lasted almost an hour.

Plane tracking site Flight Radar 24 listed the plane’s status as “unknown” before revealing to its followers that it did not believe the plane had crashed.

It was later revealed that coverage for ADS-B – a system where satellite navigation is used to determine a plane’s location – is limited in the area in which the plane “disappeared”.

Posting to Twitter, the group said: “We believe Air Algérie AH1020 to be a *coverage issue* NOT a missing aircraft. Our ADS-B coverage in Algeria is limited.”

Moments later, media in Algeria announced the plane had landed safely in Algiers, having suffered technical failure while thousands of feet in the sky.

The initial worries were sparked when the plane completely disappeared from a number of flight tracking websites.

The flight, with space for 123 passengers, took off at around 1.30pm local time and was due to arrive in Marseille just after 4pm.