A resident of Gatineau, Que., believes his wife and children were on Air Algerie Flight AH5017 that is presumed to have crashed over northern Mali.
Mamadou Zoungrana, a technologist at Papineau Hospital, told CBC News that his wife and two sons, who are not Canadian citizens, were scheduled to be on the flight but that he has not received confirmation from the airline that they boarded. His sons are aged six and 13.
"If I had more information — are there survivors? Are there no survivors? — I would be doing a little bit better," he said. "I don't know if I should sleep. What should I do?"
Zoungrana is originally from Burkina Faso. He said he has been working in Gatineau for two years in an effort to bring his family to Canada.
He said his family would not be included in the count of five Canadians confirmed to have been on the flight.
In total, 116 people were on the flight that departed from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, en route to the Algerian capital of Algiers on Thursday. It is presumed to have crashed after it disappeared from radar and lost contact with air traffic controllers.