French plane lost in ocean storm

The two airports involved have been caring for relatives and friends of those aboard the missing plane An Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France has vanished over the Atlantic after flying into turbulence, airline officials say. The Airbus sent an automatic message at 0214 GMT, four hours after leaving Rio de Janeiro, reporting a short circuit. It may have suffered lightning damage. It was well over the ocean when it was lost, making Brazilian and French search planes' task more difficult. Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris has set up a crisis centre.  Aeroplanes get hit by lightning on quite a routine basis without generally any problems occurring at all  David Gleave Aviation Safety Investigations In pictures: Waiting for news Timeline of Flight AF 447 Britons may be on lost plane "We are without a doubt faced with an air disaster," Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told reporters. "The entire company is thinking of the families and shares their pain." Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday. It had 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, including three pilots. The passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men. Some 60 Brazilians are said to have been aboard. Other passengers included between 40 and 60 French people, and at least 20 Germans, the French government said. Six Danes, five Italians, three Moroccans and two Libyans are also believed to have been aboard, while the UK fears that some of its citizens were also passengers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport to visit the crisis centre, AFP news agency reports. Lightning theory doubts The Airbus 330-200 had been expected to arrive in Paris at 1110 local time (0910 GMT).It made its last radio contact at 0133 GMT (2233 Brazilian time) when it was 565km (360m) off Brazil's north-eastern coast, Brazil's air force said. The crew said they were planning to enter Senegalese airspace at 0220 GMT and that the plane was flying normally at an altitude of 10,670m (35,000ft) and a speed of 840km/h (520mph). At 0220, when Brazilian air traffic controllers saw the plane had not made its required radio call saying it was crossing into Senegalese airspace, air traffic control in the Senegalese capital was contacted. At 0530 GMT, Brazil's air force launched a search-and-rescue mission, sending out a coast guard patrol plane and a specialised air force rescue aircraft. France is despatching three search planes based in Dakar, Senegal. "The plane might have been struck by lightning - it's a possibility," Francois Brousse, head of communications at Air France, told reporters in Paris. David Gleave, from Aviation Safety Investigations, told the BBC that planes are routinely struck by lightning so the cause of the crash remained a mystery. "Aeroplanes get hit by lightning on quite a routine basis without generally any problems occurring at all," he told BBC Radio Five Live. "Whether it's related to this electrical storm and the electrical failure on the aeroplane, or whether it's another reason, we have to find the aeroplane first." France's minister responsible for transportation, Jean-Louis Borloo, ruled out hijacking as a cause of the plane's loss. 'No information' An Air France official told AFP that people awaiting the flight would be received in a special area at Charles de Gaulle airport's second terminal. About 20 relatives of passengers on board the flight arrived at Rio's Jobim international airport on Monday morning seeking information. Bernardo Souza, who said his brother and sister-in-law were on the flight, complained he had received no details from Air France. "I had to come to the airport but when I arrived I just found an empty counter," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. "With a lack of information, it is even more worrying." Air France has opened a telephone hotline for friends and relatives of people on the plane - 00 33 157021055 for callers outside France and 0800 800812 for inside France. This is the first major incident in Brazilian air space since a Tam flight crashed in Sao Paulo in July 2007 killing 199 people.