Algeria plane crash claims 257 lives in deadliest aviation disaster since MH17

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS. At least 257 people have been killed after a military plane crashed near the Boufarik airbase outside the Algerian capital, Algiers, according to the local state television.

The incident happened shortly after the aircraft took off

Most of the dead are army personnel and their families, according to the defence ministry. Ten crew members were also killed.

It is the deadliest plane crash since July 2014, when all 298 people on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 died when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

It is also the second-deadliest plane crash since 2003.

The plane, an Ilyushin Il-76, was travelling to Bechar in the south-west of the country, BBC reported.

Earlier the death toll was believed to be 181 people.

Ennahar TV quoted an Algerian ruling party official as saying that 26 people onboard were members of the Polisario Front, a separatist movement in West Sahara - a territory also claimed by Morocco, Al Jazeera said.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan