An Algerian passenger plane with 110 passengers and six crew members on board disappeared from the radar screen while on its way to Algiers from Burkina Faso on Thursday, according to authorities.

Air navigation services lost contact with the Swiftair-operated Air Algerie plane 50 minutes after it took off from west Africa at 0155 GMT. The official Algerian news firm APS said Flight AH 5017 was already missing for several hours before the news was publicized.

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Private Spanish airline Swiftair confirmed that the said plane carried 116 people on board. The passenger jet's flight path from Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou was not yet confirmed.

Ougadougou is located almost directly south of Algiers and the flight path to it passes over the politically troubled northern region of Mali.

Swiftair posted a notice on its website saying Flight AH 5017 was supposed to arrive at its destination at 0510 GMT but the plane never reached Algiers.

Earlier, the Associated Press reported that Swiftair already launched an "emergency plan" in line with its procedures to deal with the situation.

Flightradar24, an online live-tracking service for all planes, said Flight AH 5017 could not be detected since it is flying over airspace that is out of coverage. The Algerian plane is the only flight that took the said route, the IBT added.

According to an Algerian aviation official, Algerian authorities last made contact with the now-missing plane when it was over the airspace of Gao, Mali at 0155 GMT. Burkina Faso authorities, on the other hand, said they last communicated with the flight at 0330 GMT and that they turned the flight over to the control tower in Niamey, Niger at 0138 GMT.

Meanwhile, authorities at Burkina Faso organized a crisis unit at the Ouagadougou airport to give the passengers' families updates on the missing flight.

A Malian diplomat said a powerful sandstorm hit the northern part of the country overnight.

Isa Saly Maiga, chief of the National Civil Aviation Agency of Mali, announced that they have already launched a search for the missing aircraft. He said they also alerted aviation authorities in the concerned countries including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and Spain.

The disappearance of the Algerian plane comes amidst turmoil in the airline industry after a Malaysia Airlines aircraft was shot down over Ukrainian airspace last week and a TransAsia Airways jet went down near Taiwan in the middle of a thunderstorm on Wednesday.

International airlines also cancelled flights to Tel Aviv because of the on-going violence between Gaza and Israel.