A packed Air France jet which went missing over the Atlantic o
n a flight from Brazil was probably brought down by a lightning strike, the airline said today as it faced up to the worst disaster in its history.
Flight AF447, which had a total of 228 people aboard, took off from Rio de Janeiro at 7.30pm last night bound for Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where it was due to arrive at 11.15 this morning (0915GMT).
But Brazilian air traffic controllers had their last contact with the Airbus 330-200 three hours into the flight. At 0214GMT the plane's system sent an automatic error message reporting a "fault in an electronic circuit" after it passed through a patch of severe turbulence.
"The most likely thing is that the plane was hit by lightning. The plane was in a stormy area with strong turbulence, which provoked problems," said Francois Brouse, Air France’s director of communications.
n a flight from Brazil was probably brought down by a lightning strike, the airline said today as it faced up to the worst disaster in its history.Flight AF447, which had a total of 228 people aboard, took off from Rio de Janeiro at 7.30pm last night bound for Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where it was due to arrive at 11.15 this morning (0915GMT).
But Brazilian air traffic controllers had their last contact with the Airbus 330-200 three hours into the flight. At 0214GMT the plane's system sent an automatic error message reporting a "fault in an electronic circuit" after it passed through a patch of severe turbulence.
"The most likely thing is that the plane was hit by lightning. The plane was in a stormy area with strong turbulence, which provoked problems," said Francois Brouse, Air France’s director of communications.
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