Search continues for missing Air France plane carrying 228 passengers

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

The plane that went missing over the Atlantic Ocean could have been struck by lightning during a heavy storm, a spokesman for the carrier said.

"The plane might have been struck by lightning. It's a possibility," Francois Brousse, head of communications at Air France, told Reuters.

Air France earlier said in a statement the jet sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through an area of strong turbulence, adding it "crossed through a thunderous zone" at 0200 GMT Monday (10:00 p.m. EDT Sunday).

"An automatic message was received at 0214 GMT (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday) signaling electrical circuit malfunction," the company said in a statement. There was one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men on board the plane that entered service in 2005 and last underwent maintenance April 16.

Senior French minister Jean-Louis Borloo ruled out the possibility of a hijacking of the Airbus 330-200 type plane.

"There was very, very strong turbulence. For now we can't understand what happened," Borloo, the second most senior in the government, said on France Info radio. "Apparently the possibility of a hijacking has been excluded," he added.

Air France flight AF 447, with 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT) and was expected to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday at 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT).

If it is confirmed that all 228 people were killed it would be the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accidental disaster for more than a decade.

Air France's director for Rio, Jorge Assuncao, said the missing plane was carrying 80 Brazilians, 73 French, 18 Germans, nine Italians, six US citizens, five Chinese, four Hungarians, two Spaniards, two Britons, two Moroccans and two Irish.

There was also one passenger each from Angola, Argentina, Belgium, Island, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey, he said.

SEARCHES UNDERWAY, HOPES FADING

The last contact with the Air France plane was 565 kilometers (360 miles) off Brazil’s northeast coast at 10:33 pm (0133 GMT Monday), the Brazilian air force said.

French and Brazilian air force planes launched a search mission over the Atlantic Ocean for the plane which left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time and was expected in Paris on Monday at 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT).

A Paris airport official told AFP there appeared to be "no hope" that the jet would be recovered safely.

"In his last communication, the captain said there was turbulence and afterwards contact was lost," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Aviation experts said it was clear the plane was not in the air any longer, due to the amount of fuel it would have been carrying.

"I would suggest that potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilots on board didn’t have a chance to make that emergency call," Janes Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press, adding that the possibilities ranged from mechanical failure to terrorism.

An aviation official earlier told AFP that the plane's disappearance could be caused by a technical failure. "The plane disappeared from the screens several hours ago. It could be a transponder problem, but this kind of fault is very rare and the plane did not land when expected," the official was quoted as saying.

Air France said relatives of people traveling on board flight AF 447 were being taken care of in a special area of Charles de Gaulle airport at a crises cell set up by airport authorities.