Ah5017航班的飞行员曾要求返航
The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, has revealed that the pilots of an airliner that crashed in Mali last Thursday had asked to turn back.
法国外交部长洛朗·法比尤斯透露，AH5017航班的飞行员曾要求返航。该航班于上周四坠毁于马里。
Mr Fabius said the crew of Air Algerie flight AH5017 requested to return to Burkina Faso after initially asking to change course due to bad weather.
The plane's two flight data recorders have arrived in France.
The jet was flying to Algeria when it crashed in Mali, killing all 118 aboard, including 54 French citizens.
France has taken the leading role in the investigation.
"What we know for sure is that the weather was bad that night, that the plane crew had asked to change route then to turn back before all contact was lost," Mr Fabius said on Monday.
A team of French investigators is currently sifting through the plane's wreckage in Mali, but Mr Fabius said they were facing "extremely difficult conditions".
"It's a long, fastidious（挑剔的） and extremely complex job," he added.
French, Malian and Dutch soldiers from a UN peacekeeping force (MINUSMA) have secured the site, about 80 km south of the Malian town of Gossi, near the Burkina Faso border.
Earlier on Monday, a French official confirmed that the two flight data recorders had arrived in France and were now being examined by experts.