Ninety-nine passengers,comprised of Algerian military personnel and their families as well as four aircraft crewmembers are all feared dead in a crash of a Lockheed C-130 transport in northeastern Algeria Tuesday.

The transport aircraft departed Ouargla, Tamanrasset province in central Algeria traveling to Constantine in the northeast section of the country. It is thought that the C-130 Hercules encountered foul weather and high winds and crashed enroute in the mountainous region of Oum El Bouaghi province.

Witnesses to the crash say the aircraft clipped the mountainside as it was going down.

If the deaths are confirmed, the crash will be the worst in Algerian history and rival the 2003 crash of an Air Algerie Boeing 737 commecial jet that crashed at take-off in Constantine. That crash claimed the lives of 102 people.