MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) – Investigators, working at the crash site of the Air Algerie plane in northern Mali, have completed their task of collecting the remains of the dead, Agence France-Presse has reported citing the French police.
«I have finished my investigation, related to accident and identifying the victims," the agency quoted Colonel Patrick Touron, deputy head of the French gendarmerie’s Criminal Research Institute, as saying.
«We scraped the sand and gathered everything so there is nothing belonging to a victim that could have been left behind," Touron told the agency.
Air Algerie’s McDonnell Douglas 83 en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algeria crashed in Mali on July 24. A total of 116 people from 15 countries were on board the plane. All passengers and crew members died in the crash.
The works at the crash site, some 150 kilometers (95 miles) from the city of Gao in northeastern Mali, lasted for around a week.
Forensic experts from Mali, France, Spain and Algeria have collected up to 1,200 samples from human remains. The first batch of 146 samples was sent on Friday to Paris to be analyzed by Touron’s colleagues.
Among the possible causes of the tragedy authorities named poor weather conditions. The plane deviated from the original course due to the impending storm.
