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Air France Flight Missing Off Brazilian Coast; Search Underway

This morning's beautiful weather quickly turned sour as the world learned of the possible loss of Air France Flight 447, traveling from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris with 228 people on board.

Around 10pm EST, the twin-engine Airbus hit turbulence caused by storms over the Atlantic Ocean, causing an automatic message "signaling electrical circuit malfunction" to be sent out from the airplane. According the AP, there has been no other information regarding the fate of the plane except for the simple admittance that Brazil's air force has begun "searching near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha," an area 1,500 miles northeast of Rio.

Flight 447, which was supposed to have arrived at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport at 5:15am EST, is feared to have been hit by lightning. If lost, this possible crash would be the first for Air France since the tragedy of the Concorde's 2000 crash, which killed 113 people. Now however, we're looking at double the loss of life and a much more difficult location and recovery area.

We simply can't hold back: is anyone else thinking of Oceanic Flight 815? We'll be hoping for the best and watching the news as it rolls in, attempting to banish thoughts of Lost from our heads.

Related Stories:
· Air France Missing Plane May Be First Fatal Loss Since Concorde [Bloomberg]
· Missing French jet hit thunderstorms over Atlantic [AP]
· Tragedies Coverage [Jaunted]

[Air France photo: caribb]