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According to Daily Mail "Air France officials have 'lost hope' after a passenger jet carrying 228 people disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean this morning." Brazil's Air Force says it searching for a missing Air France passenger jet near the the Brazilian island of Fernando do Noronha. An Air Force spokesman says the search and rescue mission began Monday morning after the jet failed to make regular radio contact.
The Airbus A-330, carrying more than 216 passengers and 12 crew members, was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The plane is long overdue for its scheduled (0915 UTC) landing at Charles de Gaulle airport.
Brazil's air force said a search and rescue mission was under way near the island of Fernando de Noronha. It added that the plane was well across the Atlantic when it disappeared, and the search had to cover a wide area.
"We are probably facing an air catastrophe" Air France chief executive told reporters. The Airbus which crashed in the Atlantic was carrying 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and one baby, Air France says.
It seems that A330 planes report problems for technical faults. On March 22 Bangalore Aviation reported that "for the second time in less than a week, an Airbus A330 is getting grounded at the airport with a technical fault. Following the five day grounding of a Dragonair A330, it is the turn of Air France. F-GZCB which was to perform flight AF191 early this morning, has been grounded with a technical flaw in the avionics bay. An Air France engineer is flying out with the required spares on tonight's AF192 flight, and is expected to fix the aircraft which should fly out some time tomorrow afternoon."
Airline officials said the aircraft had sent a message at 2.14am GMT reporting an electrical short-circuit, after it had flown through a stormy area with strong turbulence.
Posted June 1st, 2009 by Armen Hareyan
