Google satellite images capture Sahara desert memorial site for victims of 1989 plane crash

The UTA Flight 772 memorial site can be seen on Google Earth and Google Maps Credit: Google Maps

A remote memorial built in the African desert to remember 170 people who died when a plane blew up on September 1989 can be seen on Google Earth and Google Maps.

The co-ordinates for the location of the memorial are 16°51' 53, N "11° 57' 13, E

UTA Flight 772 was en route from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris when a bomb caused the aircraft to break up over the Sahara.

All 170 passengers and crew members aboard died.

In 2007, the memorial was created by Les Familles de l’Attentat du DC-10 d’UTA, an association of the victims’ families along with the help of locals.

Debris from the aircraft lies in a 200ft diameter circle built by hand and created using dark stones set into the sand.

A section of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft is seen at the memorial site. Credit: Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc/Familles de l’Attentat du DC10 d’UTA

Surrounding this circle are 170 broken mirrors, representing each person who died, and arrows marking the points of a compass.

Broken mirrors representing each victim surround the circle Credit: Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc/Familles de l’Attentat du DC10 d’UTA

Photographs of the memorial also feature in the exhibition "Glance of the victim: Europe against terrorism" that was set up inside the French Ministry of foreign affairs in September.

An "In Memoriam" list of some of passengers who were killed in the crash. Credit: Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc/Familles de l’Attentat du DC10 d’UTA

A subsequent investigation concluded Libyan terrorists were responsible for the bombing whose motive was said to be revenge against France for supporting Chad in a border dispute.

In 1999, six Libyans were tried in Paris in absentia as Colonel Gadaffi would not allow their extraditon and convicted for the bombing.

Libya denied any link but agreed to pay $1m to the families of each of the victims.

However, this compensation was rejected by the families of seven American victims and in 2008 a US court awarded $6bn in damages to the families and owners of the airliner.

In October of that year, Libya paid $1.5 bn into a fund to compensate relatives of this and other bombings such as Lockerbie.