Search planes from France, Spain and Brazil have joined forces in an international search operation for the Air France jetliner that mysteriously vanished while flying during story weather or the Atlantic Ocean Monday.

♦NEW: Among the missing: American couple, Brazilian prince, Michelin executives♦

The Airbus A330 jet which departed from Rio de Janeiro in route to Paris was carrying 228 passengers and a flight crew of twelve.

♦Troubling Airline Accidents♦

According to sources the search planes are searching a vast area more than a 1000 kilometers of the coast of Brazil.  Planes searched throughout the night.  Military ships from Brazil have been dispatched to the area where authorities believe the plane may have gone down however, they are not expected to arrive at their destination until  Tuesday night or Wednesday.

♦Anne and Michael Harris, who lived in Brazil, were two Americans aboard the flight♦

According to sources the flight appeared to be routine for several hours before moving out of radar contact range.  The plane transmitted an automatic electrical failure shortly after the plane crossed through a tropical weather zone near the equator.  This area frequently spawns powerful thunderstorms thus created strong turbulence.

Satellite imagery indicates that vigorous thunderstorms were swirling through the tropical zone where the plane was flying – storms that the plane just couldn’t go around.

Officials with a Brazilian air carrier say one of it’s pilots reported that they saw what appeared to be a fire in the ocean as it passed over the region where authorities fear the flight may have vanished.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ask for the United States to assist  using their  spy satellites and listening devices.

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Posted by:  BBParks

Tags: air france, air france rio de janeiro, atlantic ocean, brazil air crash, latest on air france, what happened to air france

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 5:37 am and is filed under world news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.