Pilots of Air Algerie plane asked to 'turn back' before fatal crash

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said the pilots of an Air Algerie plane that crashed in Mali had asked to "turn back" before contact was lost, in a new development in the probe.

"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," he told reporters, before France's transport minister announced that analysis of the black boxes from the jet could take "weeks."