Air France: Plane Crashes into Atlantic

An Air France plane with 228 people on board was presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday. It had hit stormy weather during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The Airbus jet flew into storms and heavy turbulence four hours after take-off from Rio and 15 minutes later sent an automatic message reporting electrical problems.

[Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Air France CEO]:
„It is probable that it is just after these messages that, without a doubt, the impact took place in the Atlantic. The plane was at that moment at several hundred nautical miles of the Brazilian coast and still some several hundred nautical miles from the African coastline. It was probably a little closer to the Brazilian coast than to the African one, but it was approximately in the middle of the Atlantic.”

Most of the passengers were Brazilian and French, but there were travelers from all over the world on board the aircraft.

Air France officials in Brazil say that among the passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby, in addition to the 12 crew members.

(NTDTV)