Backgrounder: McDonnell Douglas MD-80s

ALGIERS - An Air Algerie flight with 116 people on board, en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers, disappeared from radar 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou and was later confirmed to have crashed in Mali.

The aircraft is a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, one of a series of jets built since the early 1980s by McDonnell Douglas, a U.S. company now owned by Boeing Co.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80s are twin-engine, short- to medium-range, single-aisle commercial jet airliners. The aircraft series was designed for frequent, short-haul flights for 130 to 172 passengers depending on the model and seating arrangement.

The MD-80 series was introduced into commercial service on Oct. 10, 1980, by Swissair. The series includes the MD-81, MD-82, MD-83, MD-87, and MD-88.

The series has an overall length of 45.08 meters except the MD-87, which is 5.28 meters shorter than the others due to a shorter fuselage.

On June 3, 2012, Dana Air Flight 992, an MD-83 registration 5N-RAM, crashed into a two-story building in Lagos, Nigeria, after engine failure. All 153 passengers and crew on board were killed, as well as 10 on the ground.

On Aug. 20, 2008, Spanair Flight 5022, an MD-82 registration EC-HFP, crashed shortly after takeoff from Madrid's Barajas Airport on a flight to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. The MD-82 had 162 passengers and 10 crew on board. 18 survived.

On Sept. 16, 2007, One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269, an MD-82, crashed at the side of the runway and exploded at Phuket International Airport in Phuket, Thailand. 89 of the 130 passengers and crew on board were killed.

On May 7, 2002, China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, an MD-82, from Beijing to Dalian, crashed into Bohai Bay near Dalian. All 112 people on board were killed.

On Oct.8, 2001, Scandinavian Airlines Flight 686, a MD-87 SE-DMA, collided with a small Cessna jet during take-off at Linate Airport, Milan, Italy. The Linate Airport disaster left 118 people dead.