SAO PAULO, Brazil - A missing Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris ran into lightning and strong thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.
Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said it is possible the plane was hit by lightning.
Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, left Rio on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. EDT, with 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said.
About four hours later, the plane sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence, Air France said.
The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence." An automatic message was received fourteen minutes later "signaling electrical circuit malfunction."
Brazil's air force did not know where the aircraft disappeared, but a spokesman said it was searching near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha because if an accident had happened in Brazilian waters, it would be in that area.
Brazil's Air Force said the last contact it had with the Air France jet was at 9:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, but did not say where the plane was at that time.
The spokesman said there was no immediate indication of what might have happened to the plane. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy.
Two Brazilian Air Force planes were searching the waters about 300 kilometers northeast of the coastal city of Natal near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, a Brazilian air force spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with air force policy.
The region is about 1,500 miles northeast of Rio.
Black box 'at the bottom of the sea'
A police official on Fernando de Noronha said the weather was clear on Sunday night.
"It's going to take a long time to carry out this search," Douglas Ferreira Machado, head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, told Globo news. "It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea."
Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, at a news conference in Paris, said the pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft. No name was released.
'Something catastrophic happened'
Aviation experts said the risk the plane was brought down by lightning was slim.
"Lightning issues have been considered since the beginning of aviation. They were far more prevalent when aircraft operated at low altitudes. They are less common now since it's easier to avoid thunderstorms," said Bill Voss, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va.
He said planes have specific measures built in to help dissipate electricity along the aircraft's skin.
"I cannot recall in recent history any examples of aircraft being brought down by lightning," he told The Associated Press.
Other 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.
"The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion," Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press.
"I would suggest that potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn't have a chance to make that emergency call," Yates said, adding that the possibilities ranged from mechanical failure to terrorism.
'Emotion and worry' at Charles de Gaulle
Barrand said the airline set up an information center at Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those on board. That center said 60 French citizens were on the plane. Italy said at least three passengers were Italian.
Air France said the 216 passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.
"Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned," she said.
The flight was supposed to arrive in Paris on Monday at 5:15 a.m. EDT, according to the airport.
Airbus said it was cooperating with transport authorities and Air France, but would not further comment until more details emerged.
"Our thoughts are with the passengers and with the families of the passengers," said Airbus spokeswoman Maggie Bergsma. The Airbus A330-200 is a twin-engine, long-haul, medium-capacity passenger jet, and is 190 feet long. It is a shortened version of the standard A330, and can hold up to 253 passengers. It first went into service in 1998, there are 341 in use worldwide today. It can fly up to 7,760 miles.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his "extreme worry" and sent ministers to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to monitor the situation.
Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Source: MSNBC.com
See by Chloe
So sad.
1How awful! I cannot imagine what the families are going through, not knowing.
2They showed a scene from the airport in France of the families lined up and waiting there for news on the flight - this is just heartbreaking!
3This story is so sad and so scary. The not knowing must be agonizing.
4This is just awful. I hope more information is found out soon.
5whats terrible is that they may never ever know what happened to it, if it went down in the ocean. some parts of the atlantic are unreachable.
6I remember when the Boeing 737 Flash Airlines FSH 604 crashed into the Mediterranean in January 2004 near Charm el-Cheikh, killing 148 people (134 French and 1 Moroccan + the crew). A few days later, in the newspaper Le Monde, I saw ELEVEN people from the same family in the obituaries page. The mother, the three kids, the uncle, aunt and niece, and the grandparents. It was a tragedy reading that almost everyone in the family had died. My sister knew one of the kids. Apparently, the father was supposed to board the plane but had missed it because of a business meeting. He was supposed to fly the day after. He committed suicide 6 months later.
So awful.
7wow that's so horrifying.
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8Life is short. Enjoy it while you can.
That's a pretty awful story, Tulipe.
9Wow, Tulipe, that is a terrible story!
10Very sad. I'm wondering if this could be a similar incident to the TWA Flight that exploded out of N.Y. due to an electrical malfunction that ignited the fuel tank.
11Hypno, the TWA flight 800 was brought down, most likely, by a surface to air missile. The details of the scenario are open to speculation, but the major pieces fit together in post crash investigations. Jack Cashill wrote an interesting and thorough book on the subject.
The present situation is somewhat strange, although no less tragic. To fall some 35k feet takes a few minutes and certainly something would have been otherwise sent on a working radio. Indeed, the airplane industry goes to great lengths to dissipate lightning strikes and they are rarely catastrophic. It would seem that the situation points to some sort of major catastrophe. One hates to think of some sort of terrorism, but it is always possible.
12Our prayers are with the friends and families of all aboard.
El- Who do they think had the missile?
13The residue indicates that it was an American SM-2 launched from a surface ship.
14So they think it was an american who took it down?
15El they already proved it was electrical.
16Well if the lefty NBC news empire says it was electrical then by golly it must have been electrical.
Kidding aside yes I do remember the debate and engineers did show where the source of the problem was and how it ignited the fuel.
Could it be a cover up, sure, but highly unlikely IMO.
17conspiracy theories are fun to hear though
18This is no time for jokes but I can't help but get the pilot episode of Lost out of my head when I hear about this story.
19oh i know hyno, every time i get on the plane i think about that.
20http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31057560/
They found debris.......
21I guess debris is something. Maybe they have a chance at finding the black box now to know what really happened and find closure for the families.
22Airplane seats, jet fuel, and its right above some serious trenches.
23Well the trenches won't help with trying to find pieces of the plane. Or the black box. Depending on how deep those trenches are, they may never find all the debris. I'm sure some pieces will wash up somewhere though.
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