Fighter plane crashes southwest of Algiers; crew killed

A military plane crashed Thursday in Algeria’s Tiaret province southwest of capital Algiers, killing the entire crew, according to local media reports.

Algerian newspaper El-Bilad reported that civil-defense teams had rushed to the site, where they extinguished a fire caused by the crash and removed the dead bodies of at least two crew members.

In a subsequent statement, Algeria’s Defense Ministry announced that a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-24 fighter plane belonging to the Algerian Air Force had crashed while conducting a training mission.

Two officers, a pilot and a co-pilot were killed in the crash, the ministry said.

Military officials, the ministry added, had since launched an investigation into the incident, the cause of which reportedly remains unknown.

Algeria has witnessed several aviation accidents in recent years, the most serious of which occurred in April of last year in the Blida district south of Algiers, leaving some 300 people dead.