An Algerian military transport plane slammed into a mountain in the country’s rugged eastern region yesterday, killing 77 people on board.
There was one survivor.
The American-built C-130 Hercules transport crashed at about noon near the town of Ain Kercha, 30 miles south-east of Constantine, the main city in eastern Algeria.
A civil defence official co-ordinating the recovery efforts from Algiers said 78 people, including the crew, had been on the plane but only 55 bodies had been found.
The person who survived the crash had been taken to hospital in Constantine.
Journalists at the scene were told that women and children were among the dead.
Local reporters said the C-130 plane had broken into three parts.
The plane had taken off from the southern Saharan city of Tamanrasset and was heading to Constantine.
An Algerian defence ministry spokesman said: “Unfavourable weather conditions and storms accompanied by snow were behind the crash.”
Tamanrasset, near the border with Mali, is the main base for Algeria’s southern military operations. Extra troops have been stationed there as surveillance of the borders with Mali and Libya is stepped up.
The worst plane crash in Algerian history occurred in 2003, when 102 people were killed after a civilian airliner crashed at the end of the runway in Tamanrasset. There was also a single survivor in that crash.
In November 2012, an Algerian military cargo plane crashed in France, killing all six people aboard.