France-Brazil

Air France airplane goes missing

Article published on the 2009-06-01 Latest update 2009-06-01 17:10 TU

Information panel at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, shows flight AF447 from Rio delayed, 1 June 2009
(Photo: Reuters/Gonzales Fuentes)

An Air France passenger plane, flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris, is missing. The plane was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew, all of whom, said Air France, have long track-records. Air and sea searches were launched from both sides of the Atlantic.

Flight AF 447 may have been hit by lightning, but the main Pilots' Union in France told RFI, that this is not usually a cause for a crash. The airline says the plane was flying through a storm when it suffered electrical failure. Air France also said that the flight captain reported turbulence in his last communication. But the French airline has said that it's too early to confirm the cause of what appears to be an accident.

A search and rescue operation was launched by the Brazilian air force on the country’s Eastern coast, while a French military plane was scrambled from Senegal to help.

Flight AF447 left Rio de Janeiro at around midnight Paris time, and was scheduled to land in the city’s Charles de Gaulle airport at 11.15 am. Four hours after take off, air traffic controllers lost contact with the Airbus A330, and received an automatic error message from the plane reporting an electrical fault.

Doctors and psychologists are taking care of relatives at Charles de Gaulle-Roissy airport. Most of the 216 passengers were registered as Brazilian nationals, 40 of the people on board were registered as French nationals and 20 German. There were also several Moroccans and Lebanese on board.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered all relevant government agencies to hunt “for any sign of the plane" and quickly establish the cause of its disappearance.

An emergency phone centre has been set up at the following number if calling from outside France: 00.33.1.57.02.10.55.