The second black box from the Air Algerie plane disaster was recovered on Saturday at the crash site in Mali as investigators headed to the scene to determine the cause of the tragedy.

Officials who had reached the site described a scene of devastation littered with twisted and burnt fragments.

No one survived the Air Algerie crash and entire families were wiped out. The identification of bodies could be an arduous task given the violent impact of the crash.

"It is difficult to retrieve anything, even victims' bodies, because we have only seen body parts on the ground," said General Gilbert Diendiere, chief of the military staff of Burkina Faso's presidency.

A member of a delegation sent to the crash site by President Blaise Compaore, Diendiere added that "debris was scattered over an area of 500 meters which is due to the fact that the plane hit the ground and then probably rebounded".

AFP

(China Daily 07/28/2014 page12)