gmb45
2nd June, 2009, 05:13 PM
Brazilian jets searching for an Air France airliner that vanished over the Atlantic Ocean have spotted plane wreckage.
Aircraft seats, a life jacket, bits of white material, an orange buoy, a barrel and traces of oil were seen in two floating patches about 35 miles apart, according to an air force statement.
Its pilots spotted the debris around 400 miles beyond the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha.
This was roughly along the route that Flight 447 was taking from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Brazil air force spokesman Jorge Amaral.
He said authorities could immediately confirm the wreckage was from the missing plane. The pilots found no signs of life.
The Airbus A330 went missing on a flight to the French capital with 228 people on board.
If no survivors are found, it would be the worst disaster in Air France's 75-year history, more deadly than the crash of one of the company's supersonic Concorde planes in 2000.
Air France flight 447 left Brazil on Sunday night and lost contact with air traffic controllers in the early hours of Monday morning.
It was carrying 216 passengers of 32 nationalities, including seven children and one baby, Air France said.
Sixty-one were French citizens, 58 Brazilian and 26 German, five British and three young Irish women. Twelve crew members were also on board.
The Air France plane flew into turbulent weather four hours after taking off from Rio and 15 minutes later sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults, the airline said.
The company said a lightning strike could be to blame and that several of the mechanisms on the Airbus 330-200, which has a good safety record, had malfunctioned.
But aviation experts said lightning strikes on planes were common and could not alone explain a disaster.
They also said the plane could have suffered an electrical failure, effectively leaving the pilots "blind" and making the plane vulnerable in an area notorious for bad weather.
The United States agreed to assist in locating the crash site using satellite data.
Aircraft seats, a life jacket, bits of white material, an orange buoy, a barrel and traces of oil were seen in two floating patches about 35 miles apart, according to an air force statement.
Its pilots spotted the debris around 400 miles beyond the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha.
This was roughly along the route that Flight 447 was taking from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Brazil air force spokesman Jorge Amaral.
He said authorities could immediately confirm the wreckage was from the missing plane. The pilots found no signs of life.
The Airbus A330 went missing on a flight to the French capital with 228 people on board.
If no survivors are found, it would be the worst disaster in Air France's 75-year history, more deadly than the crash of one of the company's supersonic Concorde planes in 2000.
Air France flight 447 left Brazil on Sunday night and lost contact with air traffic controllers in the early hours of Monday morning.
It was carrying 216 passengers of 32 nationalities, including seven children and one baby, Air France said.
Sixty-one were French citizens, 58 Brazilian and 26 German, five British and three young Irish women. Twelve crew members were also on board.
The Air France plane flew into turbulent weather four hours after taking off from Rio and 15 minutes later sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults, the airline said.
The company said a lightning strike could be to blame and that several of the mechanisms on the Airbus 330-200, which has a good safety record, had malfunctioned.
But aviation experts said lightning strikes on planes were common and could not alone explain a disaster.
They also said the plane could have suffered an electrical failure, effectively leaving the pilots "blind" and making the plane vulnerable in an area notorious for bad weather.
The United States agreed to assist in locating the crash site using satellite data.