Algerian Plane Crash Kills 102

An Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff in southern Algeria today, killing 102 people on board, the airline said.

The crash of the Boeing 737 occurred minutes after the plane left Tamanrasset bound for the capital, Algiers.

"There was a mechanical problem on takeoff," said Hamid Khamdi, a spokesman for the airline.

He said he had no other information about the cause of the crash. "Unfortunately, we know only of one survivor," he said.

There were 97 passengers on the plane and six crew members, airline officials said. Mr Khamdi said the passengers' nationalities were not known. He said 39 passengers were headed for Algiers and that 58 others were due to disembark at a midway stop, Ghardaia.

The Algerian prime minister, Ali Benflis, set up a crisis unit at airports in Algiers and Tamanrasset to deal with the crash, thought to be the first in the history of Algerian commercial aviation. An investigative unit was also set up at the Tamanrasset airport.

The interior minister, Yazid Zerhouni, and the transportation minister, Abdelmalek Sellal were travelling to the scene.

Tamanrasset, in the Hoggar mountains, is a stop for Sahara Desert travellers in a region of ancient archaeological sites and prehistoric paintings and engravings. It was not immediately known whether foreign tourists were on board.

The site is also a meeting place for Tuaregs, nomadic people known for their blue robes. Tamanrasset is about 1,600 kilometres (990 miles) south of Algiers.

According to the Arab Air Carriers Organization, which Air Algerie joined in 1971, the airline was established in 1953.

Air Algeria flights to Paris were suspended for two years from the summer of 1995, after a hijacking of an Air France plane by Muslim militants.

Most international carriers stopped flights to Algeria in 1994, immediately after the plane was hijacked on Christmas Eve by the Armed Islamic Group, a radical Algerian Muslim faction. Three passengers were killed.

Algeria has been struggling to end an 11-year-long insurgency by Islamist militants that has claimed 120,000 lives.

There was no immediate indication that the plane was deliberately brought down, although Algeria has been the occasional target of terrorist acts.

The latest attack occurred in December, when a bomb exploded at an outdoor market in western Algeria, killing four people and wounding 16.