‘No hope’ for missing Air France plane

Air France officials have said that there is “no hope” for the passengers of flight AF447. The plane, travelling across the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and France, lost contact with air traffic control after sending an automated distress message at 3.14am BST last night.

The Airbus A300-200, with 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, disappeared after running into a thunder storm with severe turbulence on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The automatic message indicated that the plane had suffered an electrical circuit malfunction. “We are probably facing an air catastrophe,” said Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

‘The black box will be at the bottom of the sea’

The Brazilian air force is searching the waters near Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago of more than 20 islands in the Atlantic, about 220 miles off the coast of Brazil. However, Air France officials said they held “no hope” for survivors.

Douglas Ferreira Machado, head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, told Brazil's Globo TV that the plane could have been approaching Africa by the time it crashed: "It's going to take a long time to carry out this search. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea."

Until now, the Airbus A330 has enjoyed a near-perfect safety record with no passenger deaths at all. It has had just one fatal incident, in Toulouse in June 1994, when seven crew were killed on takeoff in a test flight to assess engine damage.

The jet’s near-spotless safety record will pile pressure on Brazil’s air traffic control system, which is already suffering unwelcome scrutiny. Run by the military, the organisation was criticised in the wake of two air crashes in September 2006 and July 2007.

A report by the US National Transportation Safety Board blamed the 2006 crash, which involved a business jet piloted by two Americans and a Brazilian commercial airliner on “systematic shortcomings” in Brazilian air traffic control, while Brazil’s public spending watchdog blamed the government for not providing enough funds.