Five things that could have happened to Algerian plane

A plane containing 110 passengers and six crew members has disappeared from radar - sparking a huge search for the flight.

All communication was lost from the Air Algerie flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers about 50 minutes after it took-off in the early hours of this morning.

The airline has said it is launching its emergency plan in a desperate bid to find the aircraft. But what are the options investigators will be looking at?

Here are five things that could have happened to missing Flight AH5017.

You can read live updates on the search for the missing plane here.

1) Mechanical failure

Despite the recent high profile plane disasters, crashes are actually extremely rare. But if it has crashed, then mechanical failure is one possibility.

The world's deadliest single-plane crash happened when a Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain about 60 miles away from Tokyo in 1985, killing 520 people .

Investigators concluded afterwards that the plane crashed solely because of a mechanical failure caused when a rear pressure bulkhead ruptured .

2) Pilot error

It may surprise many to know that some estimates put pilot error as the cause for half of all fatal airline crashes.

A number of scenarios can cause the pilots to make a disastrous mistake, including poor weather conditions or a mis-understanding of the technology.

In 1972, Eastern Airlines flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. It happened after the three crew members began obsessively attempting to work out why a light had not come on when they had lowered the landing gear, the BBC reported.

But as they frantically attempted to work this out, they did not realise that the autopilot had been accidentally switched onto a new setting . It caused the plane to descend and plunge into disaster.

3) It has been shot down

Up until last week this may well have seemed like a far-fetched idea straight from a Hollywood blockbuster.

But following the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, it has to be a theory which is taken seriously.

The Malaysia Airlines plane was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by Pro-Russian rebels fighting in Ukraine.

All 298 passengers and crew on-board were killed leading to international outrage and huge amounts of political pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

4) The plane has been hijacked

This is another worrying outcome.

Terrorists attempting to hijack planes is not a new phenomenon. Memories of 9/11 are still fresh in the mind, when four passengers planes were hijacked by al-Qaeda.

Two were flown into the World Trade Center complex and a third crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field.

In total, almost 3,000 people were killed.

But the idea that the plane has been hijacked could provide some comfort to the family members of those on-board the missing plane.

When Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared earlier this year, relatives told how the idea the plane had been hijacked gave them hope that their loved-ones could still be alive.

5) Poor weather conditions

Already many are speculating that this could be the reason behind the disappearance.

A diplomat in Mali said the plane is likely to have gone through a powerful sandstorm that hit overnight.

Satellite images from the area show a huge cloud that swept across Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso earlier today.

Just last night, a passenger plane crashed leaving 47 people dead after it failed to land at the second attempt during a massive typhoon in Taiwan.

The 70-seater TransAsia Airways turboprop had minutes earlier been forced to abort a first attempt to touchdown on Penghu island, west of the mainland.

But the second run ended in disaster as Typhoon Matmo slammed into Taiwan bringing heavy rain and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools.