Search Begins for Missing Air France Jet - The Washington Post, usa - link (aqui)

FILE -- Undated file photo made available by Airbus, showing an Airbus A330-200 jetliner from the French company Air France. An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, an Air France official said Monday, June 1, 2009. Brazil immediately began a search mission off its northeastern coast. Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said. The plane disappeared about 186 miles (300 kilometers) northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, an air force spokesman said. Brazil's air force said a search began Monday morning near Fernando de Noronha, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with Air Force policy. (AP Photo/Airbus) (AP

By Edward Cody

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 1, 2009; 8:34 AM

PARIS, June 1 -- An Air France jetliner carrying 216 passengers and a crew of 12 disappeared from radar screens without explanation Monday on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, raising fears it had plunged into the Atlantic, French authorities said.

A cameraman works next to an Airfrance counter at Tom Jobim's airport in Rio de Janeiro, after the Air France flight 447 was reported missing on its way between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, Monday, June 1, 2009. The jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.(AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes) (Ricardo Moraes - AP)

The Brazilian Air Force mounted a search operation off Brazil's northeast coast, near the distant Fernando de Noronha islands, according to news agency reports from Rio. But Douglas Ferreira, head of the investigation division of Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, warned reporters that the search could take a long time because it was taking place in a vast stretch of open sea.

"We can fear the worst," said Jean-Louis Borloo, the French minister of ecology, who was overseeing rescue efforts from the Paris end.

A reporter talks on her mobile phone while looking for information about the Airfrance flight 447 that was reported missing on its way between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, June 01, 2009. The jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.(AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes) (Ricardo Moraes - AP)

The twin-engine plane was last in contact about 4:20 a.m. Paris time as it flew 190 miles northeast of the Brazilian city of Natal and 1,500 miles northeast of its departure point at Rio, authorities in Brazil said.

Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 long-range, medium-sized passenger jet that has been on the market for about 10 years, was due to land at 11:15 a.m. Paris time, or 5:15 EDT, at Charles de Gaulle Airport on the outskirts of the French capital. But it dropped off radar screens over the Atlantic about 8:00 a.m. without explanation, reports here said.

A woman looking for information about the Airfrance flight 447 that has been reported missed on its way between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, is surrounded by Brazilian journalists in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, June 01, 2009. An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Ricardo Moraes) (Ricardo Moraes - AP)

"Air France regrets to announce that it is without news of Flight AF447, flying from Rio to Paris with 216 passengers on board, and it shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned," said an announcement from Air France relayed by the French news agency, Agence France-Presse.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, expressing "very vivid concern," dispatched Borloo and the junior minister for transport, Dominique Bussereau, to the airport to supervise government efforts to locate the aircraft and find out what happened to the passengers, Sarkozy's office announced.

A room at the airport was set aside for families who came to greet their loved ones and a special telephone number was set up to respond to inquires, airport authorities said.