Passenger jet goes missing over Atlantic with 228 aboard

Published on Monday 1 June 2009 12:47

HOPE was fading today for more than 200 passengers and crew aboard an Air France jet that went missing over the Atlantic.

Contact was lost with the Airbus A330 plane at around 3.20am UK time after it took off last night from Rio de Janeiro on a flight to Paris.

The plane – AF447 – should have landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in the French capital at around 10.15am UK time today.

But there was still no word of the aircraft's whereabouts by midday as Brazilian air force planes mounted a search of the Atlantic.

With French president Nicolas Sarkozy expressing his concern at the incident, Air France spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said: "Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from Air France flight 447 flying from Rio to Paris.

"Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned."

She said the airline has set up an information centre at Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those aboard.

The aircraft, with 216 passengers and 12 crew aboard, was equipped with CF6 engines made by American company General Electric.

To search for the missing aircraft, Brazilian air force planes took off from Fernando de Noronha – an archipelago about 220 miles off the coast of Brazil.

It consists of 21 islands, with the main one giving its name to the whole group and making up more than 90% of the total area.

UK aviation experts were reluctant to speculate about what happened to the aircraft.

But one said: "It's almost unthinkable for a western European airliner just to go missing like this."

Sources said "an automatic message was received at 0214 signalling electrical circuit malfunction."

The plane was carrying 12 crew and the passengers were a baby, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.

Aviation experts said it must have suffered a "catastrophic" failure to have gone down with virtually no warning.

There has been no receipt of a mayday call. The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this aeroplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion, Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates said.

"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," he said, adding that the possibilities ranged from mechanical failure to terrorism.

Air France Flight 447 left Rio yesterday at 7pm local time.

The plane disappeared about 190 miles north-east of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, around 1,500 miles from Rio.

The Brazilian air force began a search in the area, about 1,500 miles north-east of Rio.

An Air France spokeswoman said the airline had set up an information centre at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those aboard. That centre said 60 of the passengers were French.

"Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from Air France flight 447 flying from Rio to Paris," she said. "Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned."

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Paris at 10.15 GMT.

French transport minister Jean-Louis Borloo said: "We can fear the worst."

President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his "extreme worry" and sent ministers to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to monitor the situation.