Air France confirms disappearance of flight from Rio to Paris
Air France confirms disappearance of flight from Rio to Paris
Air France has issued a statement regarding the disappearance of one of its planes over the Atlantic Ocean. It is thought that flight AF 447 may have come down in a thunderstorm.
Air France has confirmed that the aircraft is missing. The plane was en route to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Rio de Janeiro. It was scheduled to land in Paris at 11.10am local time.
The flight left Rio de Janeiro at 7.03pm local time and hit a zone of stormy weather with strong turbulence at 2am this morning. An automatic message was received from the aircraft at 2:14am indicating a failure in the electric circuit a long way from the coast.
228 people were onboard the Air France flight - 216 passengers and 12 flight crew members. Of the passengers, 126 were men and 82 women. Seven children and an infant were also onboard. Amongst the flight crew were three pilots and nine flight attendants.
The Brazilian, African, Spanish and French air traffic control centres all tried to make contact with flight AF 447 but to no avail. The French military air traffic control centre tried to detect the aircraft but did not succeed.
The Daily Telegraph reports that officials say there is now "no hope" of finding the plane in the air, which underwent maintenance on April 16 this year. Given the limited amount of fuel the aircraft was carrying, it is widely believed that it can no longer in the air.
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