Mourning after 257 killed in plane crash

The North African nation of Algeria has been plunged into mourning by the worst aviation disaster in its history.

A hulking military transport plane crashed just after takeoff in Algeria late on Wednesday, killing 257 people.

Soldiers, their family members and a group of 30 people returning to refugee camps from hospital stays in Algeria’s capital died in the crash of the Russian-made II-76 aircraft.

The plane went down in a field just outside a military base in Boufarik, 30km south of Algiers, and was devoured by flames, killing 247 passengers and 10 crew members, the Defence Ministry said.

There was no official mention of survivors, but one witness reported seeing people jump out of the aircraft before it crashed.

Arabic-language channel Dzair TV reported that five people were in a critical state, but it was unclear if they had been on the plane or were injured on the ground.

Several witnesses told Algerian TV network Ennahar that they saw flames coming out of one of the planes’ four engines just before it took off.

“The plane started to rise before falling,” an unidentified man lying on what appeared to be a hospital bed told Ennahar TV. “The plane crashed on its wing first and caught fire.”

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ordered three days of mourning starting immediately and prayers for the dead today at mosques across the country.

The heavy loss of life of soldiers was certain to deeply shake Algeria. The National Liberation Army — which grew out of the fighting force which freed Algeria from French colonial rule — is revered by Algerians. Today, the army is credited with saving the nation from an insurgency by Islamist extremists in the 1990s and early 2000s.