OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A presidential aide says two French experts are in Burkina Faso to collect DNA samples from the relatives who lost family members in the Air Algerie plane crash.
Gen. Gilbert Diendere said Thursday it is important that the bodies be identified.
The MD-83 went down early on July 24 shortly after takeoff from Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, en route to Algiers, Algeria. Two black boxes, which were quickly found, arrived in France on Monday and engineers are working on them to shed light on why the plane went down.
Diendere warned the boxes were not in good shape. He also said that there were only 116 dead from the crash because two passengers on the flight list did not get on the plane. French officials have said 118 people were killed.
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