French troops are on the ground in Mali, securing the site of the Air Algerie plane crash.

The death toll stands at 118. More than 50 of those killed were French nationals.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande told reporters that one of the black box flight recorders has already been recovered.

(SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE SAYING:

"What we know already is that the debris from the plane is concentrated in a limited space, but it is still too early to make any conclusions, but they will come. There are theories, notably about the weather, but we aren't ruling anything out because we want to know everything about what happened."

The plane was heading from Burkina Faso to Algeria when it crashed Thursday in between the northern Malian town of Gossi and the Burkina Faso border.

Images from local television revealed the debris field, strewn with aircraft parts and twisted metal.

Officials say it appears that the air