--- description: Shortly before ground controllers lost contact with Air Algérie Flight 5017, they had urged the airliner's crew to head back to Ouagadougou title: Ground Control Asked Air Algérie Flight to Turn Back Before It Crashed image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc57c3b587f03c7/69869d8cf983e7212c04f05b/rtr409vn.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Mali](/tag/mali/) ## Mali Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Doomed Air Algérie Flight Asked to Turn Back Before Crash by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 29, 2014 5:38 AM CUT  French military helicopters fly above the crash site of Air Algérie Flight 5017 near the northern Mali town of Gossi on July 24, 2014 French military helicopters fly above the crash site of Air Algérie Flight 5017 near the northern Mali town of Gossi on July 24, 2014Souley Mane Ag Anara—Reuters by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 29, 2014 5:38 AM CUT Shortly before ground controllers lost contact with Air Algérie Flight 5017, the airliner’s crew [requested](http://news.yahoo.com/flags-half-mast-france-mourns-mali-crash-victims-095116499.html "undefined") to abandon its journey to Algiers and head back to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, eyeing foul weather on the radar. The plane crashed in a remote corner of Mali shortly thereafter, killing all 118 passengers and crew members on board. Its black-box flight recorders arrived in Paris on Monday, Agence France-Presse reports, offering investigators insight into the July 24 tragedy — the third airline disaster in just over a week, coming after the [downing](http://time.com/3045423/mh17-ukraine-crash-explosive-decompression/ "undefined") of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine and the [unsuccessful landing](http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/taiwan-transasia-plane-crash-likely-impact-point-discovered-says-investiga "undefined") of TransAsia Airways Flight 222 in Taiwan. Authorities had previously known that the Air Algérie plane requested a change of route but not a return to its point of origin. \[[_AFP_](http://news.yahoo.com/flags-half-mast-france-mourns-mali-crash-victims-095116499.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3050043/doomed-air-algerie-flight-asked-to-turn-back-before-crash/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3050043/doomed-air-algerie-flight-asked-to-turn-back-before-crash/"},"headline":"Doomed Air Algérie Flight Asked to Turn Back Before Crash","datePublished":"2014-07-29T05:38:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:23:18.248Z","description":"Air Algérie Flight 5017, which went down in Mali, was the third airliner to suffer a disastrous crash in a week","url":"https://time.com/3050043/doomed-air-algerie-flight-asked-to-turn-back-before-crash/","keywords":["Mali","France","Crash","paris"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc57c3b587f03c7/69869d8cf983e7212c04f05b/rtr409vn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dc57c3b587f03c7/69869d8cf983e7212c04f05b/rtr409vn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"French military helicopters fly above the crash site of Air Algerie flight AH5017 near the northern Mali town of Gossi","caption":"French military helicopters fly above the crash site of Air Algerie flight AH5017 near the northern Mali town of Gossi","creditText":"Souley Mane Ag Anara—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mali/","name":"Mali"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3050043/doomed-air-algerie-flight-asked-to-turn-back-before-crash/","name":"Doomed Air Algérie Flight Asked to Turn Back Before Crash"}}]}] ```