What happened
On July 24, 2014, an MD-83, registration EC-LTV, was operating a scheduled passenger flight from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to Algiers, Algeria. The aircraft, operated by Swiftair S.A., departed Ouagadougou at approximately 01:15 UTC with 110 passengers and 6 crew members on board.
During the initial climb, the flight crew performed several heading changes to navigate around a significant area of thunderstorm activity. At 01:28 UTC, the crew notified Ouagadougou Control that they were turning left to a heading of 356° for avoidance purposes. As the aircraft climbed toward its assigned flight level of 310, it underwent several further course corrections.
Shortly after reaching the cruise altitude, the aircraft's airspeed decreased, leading to a loss of altitude and a sudden, sharp descent into a left-hand turn. The aircraft struck the ground at high speed approximately 80 km southeast of Gossi, Mali. The impact resulted in 116 fatalities and the total destruction of the aircraft.
The investigation
The investigation was led by the Malian authorities, with technical assistance provided by several international agencies, including the NTSB (USA), CIAIAC (Spain), AAIB (UK), and BEA (France). Investigators recovered the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which were transferred to the BEA in France for analysis.
Field investigators examined the wreckage and the impact site, noting the distribution of debris and the condition of the engines and flight controls. The investigation also reviewed air traffic control communications from both Ouagadoug and Niamey centers, as well as meteorological data regarding the storm cells present in the flight path.