No Indians in Air France crash

Military aircraft launch massive search for wreckage of plane, which was carrying 228 people, off the coasts of Brazil and West Africa

No Indians in Air France crash

Military aircraft launch massive search for wreckage of plane, which was carrying 228 people, off the coasts of Brazil and West Africa

An Air France jet with 228 people on a flight to Paris vanished over the Atlantic Ocean after flying into towering thunderstorms and sending an automated message that the electrical system had failed. A vast search began yesterday, but all aboard were feared killed.

Shocked: Relatives of passengers of the Air France flight 447 are distraught at the Tom Jobim Airport in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. pic/AP

There were no Indians on board.

Military aircraft scrambled out to the centre of the Atlantic, far from the coasts of Brazil and West Africa, and France sought US satellite help to find the wreckage. The first military ship wasn't expected to reach the area where the plane disappeared until tomorrow.

If there are no survivors, it would be the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001.

32 nationalities

The four-year-old Airbus A330 left Rio on Sunday night with 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Most of the passengers were Brazilian and French, but 32 nations in all were represented.

The plane was cruising normally at 35,000 feet just before it disappeared nearly four hours into the flight. No trouble was reported as the plane left radar contact, beyond Brazil's Fernando de Noronha archipelago, at 10.48 pm local time.

But just north of the equator, a line of towering thunderstorms loomed. Bands of extremely turbulent weather stretched across the Atlantic toward Africa, as they often do in the area this time of year.

The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence", Air France said. About 14 minutes later, at 11.14 pm local time, an automatic message was sent reporting electrical system failure and a loss of cabin pressure. Air France said the message was the last it heard from Flight 447.

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