Sarkozy: Chances of finding Airbus survivors "very slim" (2nd Roundup)

By Siegfried Mortkowitz Jun 1, 2009, 18:36 GMT

Paris/Rio de Janeiro - The chances of finding any survivors among the 228 passengers and crew of the Air France Airbus A330-200 that went missing over the Atlantic early Monday are 'very slim,' French President Nicolas Srkozy said.

Sarkozy made the statement at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he had gone to comfort the relatives of passengers on the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, which vanished at about 0215 Monday, approximately 500 kilometres off the coast of Brazil.

According to an updated passenger list released by Air France late Monday, there were 61 French citizens aboard the plane, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans and 9 people from China and Italy each.

Sarkozy also said the French government had asked US authorities to help localize the precise site of the crash with the aid of their satellites.

The Airbus A330-200, flight number AF 447, left Rio de Janeiro for Paris Sunday at 2203 GMT, but the plane lost radio contact with Brazilian air control at about 0130 GMT, the Chief Executive of Air France, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, told journalists in Paris.

At about 0200 GMT, the aircraft entered a zone of severe turbulence and storms, Gourgeon said. Some 15 minutes later, a number of automatic maintenance messages from the aircraft signalled the failure of several electrical systems, he added.

'The plane could have been hit by lightning,' a spokesman for Air France said, suggesting the plane might have lost its power supply during a storm. But experts say that this scenario is unlikely.

Whatever the cause, Gourgeon was pessimistic about the plane's fate. 'We are undoubtedly facing an aviation catastrophe,' he said.

French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said, 'we don't really understand what happened. ... We must unfortunately prepare for the worst.'

French RTL broadcaster quoted Brazilian air traffic controllers as saying there had been no distress message from the plane. As a result, some experts have not ruled out a terrorist attack.

Several experts told France Info radio that the area in which the plane went missing was known for storms and turbulent weather the year round, and that pilots were specifically trained to fly through the region.

The weather disturbances in the area include mini-tornadoes that could account for the abrupt disappearance of the plane and the absence of distress signals.

It was feared that if the plane sank in deep water, it would be impossible to retrieve the so-called black boxes and determine the cause of the accident.

Three Brazilian Navy ships and three Brazilian Air Force planes were taking part in the search for the missing plane. Three French aircraft were also on their way to the area.

French i-tele television reported that the plane was about 565 kilometres from the Brazilian coast when contact with it was lost. At the time, it was flying at a speed of 840 kph at an altitude of 35,000 feet.

According to Air France, the pilot of the plane was very experienced, having logged 11,000 flight hours, including 1,700 hours with Airbus A330/A340 aircraft.

Airbus said the plane was delivered to Air France in 2005 and had accumulated about 18,800 flight hours in some 2,500 flights.