Flight AH5017 with registration EC-LTV, which crashed today en route from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, to Algiers, the capital of Algeria, is the same plane which was leased to Real Madrid between 2007 and 2008 when Ramón Calderón was president.

Real Madrid named the plane 'La Saeta', as a tribute to the footballer and the club's president of honour, Alfredo Di Stéfano.

The aircraft, which is currently leased by the company Swift Air, took off from Ouagadougou at 01:17. It disappeared from radar screens just 50 minutes later. According to reports by 'elmundo.es', it was crewed by seven Spaniards.

Algeria's aviation authorities confirmed that the plane, an MD83 with 110 passengers on board, crashed in the middle of the desert on the Niger and Mali border.

According to information provided by the Air Controllers Union, the area is ravaged by the Mali war and is considered a new drug-trafficking route.

Spanish Air Navigation and Civil Aviation authorities are in contact with their counterparts in Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria in order to gather information on the missing flight.