"quatre mille metres" Of course. DUH, I should have figured that out! Sorry!
(Sometimes the vocalization of final e's in French words spoken by native French speakers can throw me, because those e's are largely unpronounced by the West Africans I work with.)
Just noticed an article (in French) with comments by Remi Jouty, director of the BEA. Two BEA investigators are at the scene. Jouty is basically saying it's too early to cite a probable cause of the crash.
http://www.rtl.fr/actu/societe-faits...bea-7773437558
The most notable news from the article is that the black boxes will be sent to France for analysis at the request of the Malian authorities.