Plane crash fears
June 1, 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the prospects of finding any survivors from the Air France jet were "very small."
Finding the plane would be "very difficult" because the search zone was "immense," he added.
His comments came after he met relatives of the 216 passengers and 12 crew members on Air France flight 447 which was heading to Paris from Rio de Janeiro. The airplane sent an automatic message reporting a short-circuit roughly 15 minutes after flying into turbulence.
Europeans among the passengers
Air France said 58 Brazilians and 61 French people were among the passengers on board.
Air France spokesman Jorge Assuncao told reporters at Rio de Janeiro's Galeao airport that the passengers also included 26 Germans, nine Italians, six Swiss, five Britons, and four Hungarians as well as two citizens each from the United States, Spain, Morocco and Poland.Air France expressed its "sincere condolences" to the families of those aboard the ill-fated flight.
"We are without a doubt faced with an air disaster," Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told reporters. "The entire company is thinking of the families and shares their pain."
A spokeswoman for Air France Brigitte Barrand said the airline had set up a crisis center at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those on board.
Air France has opened a telephone hotline for friends and relatives of people on the plane - 00 33 157021055 for callers outside France and 0800 800812 for inside France.
Officials fear the worst
The Airbus 330-200 had been expected to arrive in Paris at 1110 local time (0910 GMT). It is reported to have disappeared 300 kilometers (186 miles) north-east of the Brazilian city of Natal.
Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse told reporters in Paris the A330 could have been hit by lightning.
"It's an awful tragedy. It's dreadful ... Until 10.45 a.m. (0845 GMT) we could still have some hope, but at this stage the kerosene reserves have been more than used up," senior French minister Jean-Louis Borloo said.
Brazil launched a search and rescue operation off the Brazilian coast. A Brazilian Air Force spokesperson said the mission was launched on Monday morning after the plane failed to make radio contact.
Douglas Ferreira Machado, head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, said the search would take "a long time."
"It could be a long, sad story," he told Brazil's Globo news. "The black box will be at the bottom of the sea."
This is the first major incident in Brazilian air space since a Tam flight crashed in Sao Paulo in July 2007 killing 199 people.
sp/AP/Reuters/AFP
Editor: Trinity Hartman