Medical evacuation plane carrying seven people crashes off Senegal

A medical evacuation plane carrying seven people, including a French patient, went down off the coast of Senegal, officials said Sunday.

The twin-engine aircraft, which was flying from Burkina Faso to Senegal, disappeared from radars shortly after 7 pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday while flying over the Atlantic, 111 kilometres west of the capital Dakar, Senegal’s civil aviation authority Anacim said in a statement.

Senegal’s air force was searching the area for the wreckage of the plane that left Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou for Dakar at 16:35 (1635 GMT), according to airport sources in Burkina Faso.

The plane, which had been due to arrive in Dakar at 18:20, belonged to the private Senegalair company, Anacim said.

Apart from the patient, the plane, which was bound for Dakar, was carrying a Senegalese doctor and two nurses as well as three crew members, two Algerians and one Congolese.

Senegal’s Futurs Medias news group reported that the aircraft was suspected of having run out of fuel.