The mother, father and two children lived in a suburb of Montreal and were returning home with a friend - a resident of nearby Sherbrooke, Quebec - from another couple's 50th wedding anniversary celebrations in Burkina Faso, said French-language broadcaster LCN.
21.32 Radio France International said locals had heard “loud explosions” early in the morning near Kidal.
Efforts to reach the wreckage now could prove perilous as it lies right in the heart of the Tuareg uprising and Islamist activity that has brought chaos to northern Mali.
21.13 Readers may have heard the rumours earlier today that the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro was killed in the flight.
However Mariela Castro, a sexologist and gay-rights activist, assured journalists including AFP she is alive and well, contradicting reports she had been onboard the Air Algerie plane that went missing in Mali.
20.54 According to Henry Samuel in Paris, there is speculation the plane crash might have been an act of terrorism.
Kidal is the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising that plunged Mali into chaos in 2012, leading to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of the country by militants linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
A French-led intervention last year dispersed the extremists, but the Tuaregs still pose a serious threat in the north, as do a string of other fractious Islamist groups.
While AH5017 clearly changed direction due to bad weather, some experts doubted a storm could have caused a crash.
Jean Serrat, a former airline pilot, said the causes were more likely to be “either a terror strike on board” or a missile strike like the one that brought down MH17 last Thursday, killing 298 people – 194 of them Dutch.
Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said: “We cannot, we must not rule out any theory before having all the evidence at our disposal.”
20.01 The Malian government and six rebel groups signed an accord on an end to hostilities as part of ongoing peace talks that opened in Algiers last week, AFP reports.
A ceasefire has been in force with the mainly Tuareg and Arab rebel groups since a last eruption of fighting in May.
The two sides also signed a roadmap aimed at "putting in place a framework for the peace talks to allow the emergency of comprehensive negotiated settlement."
The signature of the two documents marked "a satisfactory result with which to crown the initial phase of the dialogue", Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said in a short statement.
The talks, which opened on July 17, are to resume next month aimed at reaching an agreement by the autumn on power-sharing short of secession.
While separatist demands have officially been dropped by the rebel Tuareg groups attending the talks, they are demanding greater autonomy or a special status for northern Mali, known by the Tuareg as Azawad.
After inflicting a "major defeat" on the Malian army in the Tuareg region of Kidal in May, the rebel movements now occupy nearly two-thirds of the country's territory and are in a position of strength in the talks, according to the Algerian hosts.
19.50 According to Reuters, the Mali government and northern rebels say they have signed an agreement in Algiers on the roadmap towards a peace deal.
19.35 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said authorities were looking into every possible cause for the disappearance of the plane which had 51 French nationals on board, AFP reports.
19.31 Efforts to reach the wreckage could prove perilous as it lies right in the heart of the Tuareg uprising and Islamist activity that has brought chaos to northern Mali, reports Hannah Strange.
Efforts to reach the wreckage could prove perilous as it lies right in the heart of the Tuareg uprising and Islamist activity that has brought chaos to northern Mali.
The area around the towns of Kidal and Aguelhoc is a key stronghold of the Tuaregs and the centre of a recent upsurge in fighting between government forces and the separatist MNLA. In May, the convoy of Prime Minister Moussa Mara came under attack during a visit to Kidal, triggering fierce clashes in which 50 troops died and leading the government to declare itself once again "at war" with the MNLA.
A ceasefire was later agreed, but that has been broken by several outbreaks of fighting including battles less than a fortnight ago in the desert between Kidal and the city of Gao to the south which killed at least 37.
As well as confrontations between the MNLA and government troops, infighting amongst separatist factions and clashes between the Tuaregs and their former Islamist allies have brought further bloodshed to the northern region.
Government representatives and separatist representatives recently opened peace talks in Algeria though as with previous negotiations, there are doubts whether they will bring an end to Tuareg uprising.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is active in the area, as are other Islamist groups, while the Tuaregs remain in control of Kidal, Aguelhoc and a number of other towns in the area. The government claims the Tuareg are still backed by AQIM and other Islamists, though the separatists largely deny this.
19.22 According to French President Francois Hollande, the pilots had decided to divert from their route due to "extremely difficult weather conditions", AP reports. We recently heard from the President of Mali who has said wreckage was spotted between two northern towns in his country.
19.11 AFP has spoken to family members of some believed to be on board the flight who have spoken of the lack of information provided to worried relatives.
The 34-year-old man lives in Ouagadougou, the capital of the west African country of Burkina Faso, and was due to land in Orly around midday.
"They don't know anything here. They didn't even know that the plane had disappeared and they don't have a passenger list," said Laetitia, who found out about the news on television.
"They have no trace of the flight," the woman with her, Diata, said. "I called the (emergency) number but they didn't say anything. We're just waiting."
A little later, two older women arrived at the airport, tears in their eyes. They were immediately taken to a lounge on the fourth floor where a crisis cell had been set up.
19.00 President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said the wreckage of a missing Air Algerie flight had been spotted in his country's desert north, Reuters reports.
"I have just been informed that the wreckage has been found between Aguelhoc and Kidal," Keita said during a meeting of political, religious and civil society leaders in Bamako.
He did not give any more details.
18.52 Mali's president has said wreckage of the Air Algerie flight has been spotted between northern towns of Aguelhoc and Kidal, according to Reuters.
18.21 The pilots, in their last radio contact, said they were diverting course due to "extremely difficult weather conditions", Francois Hollande said.
Speaking on French television, the president vowed to deploy all of France's military means in Mali, where it has hundreds of troops, to track down a missing Algerian plane.
18.06 Francois Hollande, the French president, has spoken about the missing plane:
Mr Hollande has cancelled an official trip he had been scheduled to make to Reunion, Mayotte and Comoros, according to BFMTV.
17.42 Conflicting reports of "crash site" locations of AH5017 continue to emerge.
One possibility seems to be in the Kidal region of Mali, where there are reports from Radio France International - France's equivalent of BBC World Service - of locals hearing "powerful explosions" this morning around Aguelhoc,
Unverified reports of the discovery of wreckage by French soldiers in the Tilemsi area of central Mali, have been denied by the French. The same location was given by a mysterious tweet from an account claiming to be the official feed of Air Algerie, which tweeted that: "AH5017 L'avion se serait crashé à Tilemsi. L'avion se serait crashé dans la région de Tilemsi, à 70km de Gao." (AH5017 The plane would have crashed at Tilemsi. The avion would have crashed in the region of Tilemsi, 70km from Gao)
Of course, at this stage we do not have full confirmation that the plane has crashed at all.
17.18 The missing flight had diverted shortly before it lost contact with air traffic control due to heavy rains, suggesting turbulent weather as a likely explanation for its disappearance.
These meteorological maps show the conditions in Mali at the time.
17.00 The missing Air Algerie flight AH5017 was checked "two or three days ago" and was "in good condition", France's aviation watchdog has said.
Patrick Gandil, head of the French civil aviation authority, said the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 "passed through France in Marseille two or three days ago. We examined it and we found almost nothing, it was really in good condition."
16.47 Swiftair has said the missing plane was built in 1996 and has two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 PW engines. It can carry 165 passengers.
Swiftair took ownership of the plane on Oct. 24, 2012, after it spent nearly 10 months unused in storage, according to Flightglobal's Ascend Online Fleets, which sells and tracks information about aircraft.
It has more than 37,800 hours of flight time and has made more than 32,100 takeoffs and landings. The plane has had several owners over the years, including Avianca and Austral Lineas Aereas.
16.37 Rumours that Fidel Castro's niece Mariela may have been on board the flight, traced to a Facebook page which claims to be run by Ouagadougou airport, are false, the Telegraph can confirm.
16.30 With reports suggesting that the plane was diverted to avoid bad weather, focus is likely to shift onto the amount of fuel the plane had on board. David Millward explains:
16.20 The search for AH5017 is "focussing at this stage on a vast strip of Malian territory around the region of Gao," in the north of the west African nation, said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.
16.16 David Millward reports on the safety record of Swiftair, the Spanish company which owned and staffed the missing flight. The airline, according to Aviation Safety Network, has only had four accidents since it was founded in 1986:
In October 1993 one of its aircraft was written off when the crew forgot to lower the landing gear as the plane arrived in Madrid. In May 1995, another aircraft was damaged beyond repair during a botched landing at Vitoria airport in Spain.
In July 1998 two crew were killed when a cargo aircraft crashed en-route to Barcelona when the pilot lost control of the plane and in January 2012 a plane sustained substantial damage during a botched landing at Kandahar.
16.00 French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed that there has been no trace of the missing plane yet.
"Despite intensive search efforts no trace of the aircraft has yet been found," Fabius told journalists in Paris. "The plane probably crashed."
He added that French Mirage warplanes were scouring the area for the aircraft, which had 51 French nationals on board.
15.49 Despite some reports that plane wreckage has been located, the French foreign minister says the Air Algerie flight is still missing, despite the ongoing search, and that it "probably" crashed.
15.21 No further details have been reported of the cause or location of the apparent crash of AH5017.
However, a source in Niger has told The Telegraph that forces on both sides of the Mali-Niger border are currently searching for wreckage of the plane, without any success so far.
"They are seeking the flight in the east of Mali and in Niger," he said, citing a conversation with a Niger army colonel.
14.56 Though we do not know the cause of AH5017's disappearance and reported crash, the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington had explicity warned civil aircraft to avoid flying over Mali because of insurgent activity.
The Notice to Airmen - or NOTAM - read:
14.42 David Millward reports on the MD-83 - the aircraft type which has reportedly crashed this morning en route to Algiers:
David Gleave, an aviation expert at Britain’s Loughborough University, described the MD-83 as a "pretty solid airplane in general." He added: "It flies fairly simply, pilots understand how it flies so it is a solid, reliable workhorse … it is unlikely to be the flight crew didn't understand the aircraft."
There have been three fatal accidents involving the MD 83 went into service in 1985. Three other aircraft have been written off following accidents, although there were no fatalities.
March 15 1999 - Korean Air
Aircraft damaged beyond repair after botched landing at Pohang, South Korea.
Jan 31 2000 - Alaska Airlines
All 88 people on board killed when plane nosedives into sea off California because of stabiliser problem. Attributed to poor lubrication.
Jan 8 2005 - Aero Republica
Plane written off after aircraft overruns runway on landing in Colombia
Oct 11 2007 - AMC airlines
Plane written off after overshooting runway during emergency landing in Istanbul.
Nov 30 2007 - Atlasjet airlines
All 57 people on board killed when plane crashes into a Turkish mountain
June 3 2012 - Dana Air
All 153 people on board killed along with 10 on the ground when plane on domestic flight in Nigeria loses power in both engines
14.18 A fuller passenger list has been published by official Algerian news agency APS.
The list of passengers includes 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo reportedly said.
However, AFP is reporting that "at least 20" passengers were Lebanese.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
14.14 Fiona Govan reports from Madrid, Spain with the latest on the fate of AH5017, which was owned and staffed by the Spanish firm Swiftair:
Swiftair confirmed that the two pilots and four cabin crew are all Spanish, and said that contact had been lost with the plane 50 minutes after it took off from Burkina Faso this morning for Algiers.
The company said it was trying to establish the nationalities of those on board and were coordinating with the Spanish foreign ministry.
"At this moment we have emergency teams and company personnel working to establish what happened and as soon as we know more details we will release new statements," it said in a statement, according to Spanish websites.
According to Algeria media reserves of kerosene on the plane could have run out after an hour.
Spain's ministry for development and transport has called a crisis cabinet and is in touch with the company and authorities in Burkino Faso, Mali and Algeria.
Jose Manuel Margallo, Spain's foreign minister described the situation as "confusing" and is in touch with his Algerian counterpart Ramatane Lamama, as well as the Spanish prime minister.
Speaking on an office visit to Tunisia he said "the situation is very confused."
14.11 "I can confirm that it has crashed," the unnamed Algerian official who spoke to Reuters has said, declining to give details of where the plane was or what caused the accident.
13.57 An Algerian aviation official has told Reuters the plane has crashed.
No more details are currently available on the location, but Niger security sources say planes are flying over its border with Mali to search for the plane.
13.51 Swiftair, which owned and staffed the plane, has a relatively clean safety record, with five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation.
Air Algerie's last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.
13.45 French fighter jets based in the region have been dispatched to try to locate the missing plane, French army spokesman Gilles Jaron has said.
They will search an area from its last known destination along its probable route.
13.42 David Millward explains why a Spanish-owned plane was being operated by an Algerian airline:
The aircraft was "wet leased" by Air Algerie from Swiftair [a Spanish airline company], which supplied both aircraft and crew. The practice of wet leasing is common in the industry. British Airways wet-leased a number of aircraft during the 2010 cabin crew dispute to maintain services.
13.30 There may have been as many as 80 French passengers on board AH5017, "airport sources" in Algeria have told EFE.
13.25 The Telegraph's David Millward, former transport editor, has been following events from the US:
David Soucie, a former investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration, has told CNN: “There is no reason to think there is anything mechanically wrong with the plane. There is some reason that it flew over restricted airspace.”
Speaking on CNN he adds that field could have been an issue when the pilot had to make a decision what route should be taken to avoid the storm.
13.19 Mike Pflanz reports for The Telegraph from Nairobi:
A European diplomat in Ouagadougou said that there was limited information available from the country's civil aviation authorities, but that he had been briefed that the aircraft left Burkina Faso airspace and had continued as planned over Malian territory.
There were reportedly many French citizens on the flight, which was likely to be routed over territory that was in the hands of al-Qaeda's affiliates in northern Mali until France intervened to push them out in 2013.
Despite this, the European diplomat said that there was no suggestion he had heard that the aircraft could have been specifically targeted by anti-French Islamist forces from the ground.
13.07 Amid conflicting reports about the missing plane's movements, here is a roundup of what we have heard so far.
- Flight AH5017 set off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, toward Algiers, Algeria, at 0117 local time [02.17am UK time].
- It flew northward, into Mali airspace.
- Burkina Faso air traffic control handed over to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, just across the border from Mali, at 1:38am local time [02.38 UK time].
- At around this time AH5017 was asked to change route because of a storm.
- The last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 01.55am [02.55am UK time] when it was flying over Gao, Mali.
- Niger air traffic controllers have reportedly said their said last contact with the flight was just after 4:30am local time (04.30am UK), suggesting it may have entered Niger air space, though this is yet unconfirmed
12.58 Burkina Faso authorities have set up a crisis unit in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families of people on the flight, reports Reuters.
Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali's National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight.
"We do not know if the plane is Malian territory," he told Reuters. "Aviation authorities are mobilised in all the countries concerned - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain."
12.56 The Air Algerie flight disappeared over northern Mali, France's transport minister has confirmed.
12.54 Fifty French people were on board according the plane's passenger list, an Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso has told Reuters.
12.51 The missing Air Algerie flight AH5017 was asked to change route at 01.38 (02.38 UK time) because of a storm, the Burkina Faso transport minister has said.
However, it has also been reported that air traffic controllers in both Algerian and Niger had contact with it later.
12.42 "There were likely French people on board, and if there were French people on board there were certainly many of them," Frederic Cuvillier, France's transport minister, has told reporters.
12.33 The first details on the 110 passengers on board flight AH5017 - the French transport minister has said that "likely many" French citizens would have been on board the flight, which has disappeared.
12.28 More details are emerging of the final minutes of contact with the plane.
An Algerian aviation official has told Reuters that the last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 0155 GMT (02.55am UK time) when it was flying over Gao, Mali.
Aviation authorities in Burkina Faso say they handed the flight to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, at 1:38am local time (02.38 UK time). They said last contact with the flight was just after 4:30am local time (04.30 UK).
12.22 More reports are emerging that the flight was asked to change course midflight in order to avoid the path of another plane, again unconfirmed.
12.19 Chinese state television is now reporting that the plane has crashed in Niger. It has not yet been possible to verify this information.
12.07 This map, based on information from the Federal Aviation Administration and International Civil Aviation Organisation, depicts how Mali is considered by US airlines to be one of the world's "high risk" flight zones.
Burkina Faso is the country directly south of Mali - Algeria is directly north of the country.
11.58 Following early reports of poor visibility, Mali is at the end of its dry season, during which the harmattan, a dry, hot wind that blows from the east out of the Sahara, "sweeps the soil into dusty whirlwinds and is accompanied by daytime temperatures of about 104 to 113 °F (40 to 45 °C)", accoridng to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The weather in Mali today is described as "mostly cloudy".
11.46 Flight AH5017 was in Malian air space approaching the border with Algeria when contact was lost, a source from Air Algerie has reportedly told AFP.
Contact was lost after the change of course.
11.32 The missing airplane is owned by Spanish private airline Swiftair, and operated by Air Algerie, according to Reuters:
The company said in a notice posted on its website that the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 local time [02.17am UK time] and was supposed to land in Algiers at 0510 local time but never reached its destination.
11.27 Mali - the shortest flight path for AH5017 - is currently considered a "high risk" flight zone by US airlines, according to this Wall Street Journal graphic .
However, a senior French official has told AP it is unlikely that fighters in Mali had weaponry that could shoot down a plane:
General view of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (NEIL COOPER/ALAMY)
11.25 Contact was lost with the plane some time after 01.55GMT (02.55 UK), according the official Algerian news agency.
"In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," the agency quoted the airline as saying.
11.22 The flight code was AH5017, according to AP, and originated in the Burkina Faso capital city of Ouagadougou.
11.16 Air Algerie is the national airline of Algeria, flying to 28 countries including the United Kingdom.
It is not yet clear what route the plane was taking when it went missing, but would most likely have been flying over either Mali or Niger.
11.10 A plane carrying 110 passengers from Burkina Faso to Algeria has gone missing, according to reports. The plane was an Air Algerie aircraft, and lost contact with air traffic controllers 50 minutes after takeoff.
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