Missing Air France jet wreckage found

WRECKAGE from a doomed Air France flight which vanished over the Atlantic has reportedly been spotted by the Brazilian air force.

DESPAIR Patricia Coakley who believes her husband was on Flight AF447 DESPAIR: Patricia Coakley, who believes her husband was on Flight AF447

Early reports suggest a search team has found plane seats 400 miles north-east of the Brazilian coastline.

A radar may also have detected oil and metal debris on the surface of the sea.

The packed plane was carrying 228 people from Brazil to Paris when it disappeared early yesterday morning.

Flight AF447 had reported an electrical short-circuit as it headed through a tropical storm.

It is thought the Airbus A330 may have been struck by lightning, sending its systems haywire. But the cause of the crash is still unknown because the pilots made no mayday call to air traffic controllers.

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BOARDING Passengers wait to check in for other Air France flights BOARDING: Passengers wait to check-in for other Air France flights

British oil industry worker Graham Gardner, 52, from Gourock, Renfrewshire is among the five Britons feared dead.

Today his wife Joyce, 51, said: “Graham was very supportive and always there for me when I needed him.

“Although we don’t have children, he was very much a family man and loved playing with all the children in our extended family. He was just a big kid at heart.

Also on board the stricken aircraft was Alexander Bjoroy, an 11-year-old prep school pupil from Clifton College in Bristol who had been returning to England after his half-term break.

Engineer Arthur Coakley, 61, from near Whitby, North Yorkshire was due to get an earlier flight, which had been fully booked.

Today his wife of 34-years, Patricia (pictured above), said: “He’s not going to come back. Yesterday I was really optimistic, today maybe more realistic. I would love him to come back."

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Yesterday a desperate search for survivors was mounted off the coast of Brazil. But Air France officials admitted they have “little hope” of finding anyone alive.

They confirmed five Britons were on board flight AF447. One was a woman from Wales travelling with three Irish women in their 20s from Dublin, Tipperary and Belfast.

An orthodontist working in Reading, Dr Jose Souza, was also on the list.

Also on board the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport were 61 French, 58 Brazilians and 26 Germans, nine Chinese, nine Italians, five Lebanese, six Swiss, four Hungarians, three Norwegians, three Slovaks, two Americans, two Spaniards, two Moroccans, two Poles and passengers from 16 other countries.

The 12-strong crew were all French.

Last night attempts to find the plane were hampered by the failure of its satellite rescue beacons to work, making locating it in an area three times the size of Europe almost impossible.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said the chances of finding any survivors was “very small”.

He said after meeting relatives and friends of passengers at a crisis centre at Charles de Gaulle: “It is a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen.”

Mr Sarkozy said France has asked for help from US satellites to locate AF447.

Charles de Gaulle airport was a scene of utter despair as relatives and friends of those aboard filed inside.

Young and old were in tears as they were led towards a “crisis centre”.

Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told reporters: “We are without a doubt faced with an air disaster,” adding: “The entire company is thinking of the families and shares their pain.”

The Foreign Office said they were “urgently investigating” the incident.

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Air France says Flight 447 disappeared four hours after leaving Rio de Janeiro airport.

Although it could not rule out terrorism, the indications pointed to a serious electrical short-circuit which crippled the jet after it passed through storms near the equator.

A series of automatic messages from the aircraft warned of a short-circuit after strong turbulence.

The airline said the plane, whose wings were made in Britain, could have been struck by lightning.

Air France boss Francois Brousse said several of the plane’s mechanisms had malfunctioned, preventing it from making contact with air traffic controllers.

He said: “It is probably a combination of circumstances that could have led to the crash.”

David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine, said: “An event like this is the kind the aviation world hoped it would not see again, because it involves a world-class carrier flying the latest generation of airliner, and it occurred en route, not during take-off or landing in difficult weather. It’s a chilling reminder that nothing is impossible.”

Flight AF 447 left Rio at 7pm local time (10pm GMT) on Sunday. It had 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, including three pilots. The passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.

It made its last radio contact at 1.33am GMT (10.33pm Brazilian time) when 360 miles off Brazil’s north-eastern coast, Brazil’s air force said.

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The crew had said they were planning to enter Senegalese air space at 2.20am GMT and that the plane was flying normally at 35,000ft.

But when Brazilian air traffic controllers realised the plane had not made its required radio call to pass into Senegalese air space, air traffic control in the Senegalese capital was contacted.

The airline said the pilot was very experienced, having clocked 11,000 flying hours, including 1,100 hours on Airbus 330 jets.

Air France said the plane itself came into service four years ago and last underwent maintenance in April.

Air France has opened a telephone hotline for friends and relatives of those on the plane. It is 00 33 157021055 for callers outside France and 0800 800812 for those in the country.

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