Officials said the Airbus A330-200 sent automated messages of electrical failure and pressure loss as it hit turbulence, vanishing from the radar early in its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The loss of a relatively new model of one of the aviation sector's most reliable and state-of-the-art aircraft has stunned analysts who say it would take extremely violent weather to bring down such a large jet.
Time line
2230 GMT Sunday Flight AF447 takes off from Rio's Airport do Galeao0133 GMT Monday Plane makes last contact with Brazilian air traffic control
0148 GMT Plane disappears from radar
0220 GMT Plane fails to make scheduled radio contact
0530 GMT Brazilian Air Force launches search
0910 GMT Plane fails to make scheduled landing in Paris
Source: Brazilian Air Force
Jean-Christophe Rufin, France's ambassador in the west African country of Senegal, told French iTele that aircraft had also taken off from there to search for the missing Airbus.
Brazil's air force said that when the plane left its radar area at 0148 GMT it had been flying normally at an altitude of 35,000 feet and at 453 km per hour. It failed to make contact at the next attempt half an hour later at 0220.
An air traffic controller at ASECNA in Dakar, which covers Francophone Africa, said they did not take control of AF 447.
The plane was an Airbus 330-200 powered with General Electric engines. If the plane is confirmed to have crashed, it would be the first time an A330 has been lost during an operational airline flight.
Air France lost an operational jet in 2000, Concorde, which ultimately ended in Concorde's demise.
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This aircraft is a very safe aircraft having only one previous fatal accident in 1994. Weather conditions have emerged as a leading suspect in the assumed loss of an Air France Airbus A330-200 that disappeared off the coast of Brazil last night.
CNN, Reuters,FlightGlobal
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