It's a tormented waiting game for these Lebanese women.

Their relatives were on the Air Algerie flight that crashed Thursday, after the jet disappeared over northern Mali.

Of the 110 passengers onboard, it's estimated that 20 were Lebanese.

This five-year-old is one of them.

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SISTER-IN-LAW OF LEBANESE PASSENGER RANDA DAHER, AMINA DAHER, SAYING:

"We don't know anything yet, we have just heard from the news that the plane went missing.. we don't know."

In a nearby village, heads hang low as they too wait for news:

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RELATIVE OF LEBANESE PASSENGER NAJWA ZAYAT, RADWAN KHALIL, SAYING:

"The brother of the missing one, if we can say (missing) till the moment, is preparing to go to Mali as soon as possible."

Algeria's state news agency said authorities lost contact with the flight an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso en route to Algiers.

And there are few clear indications of the plane's f