国际英语新闻：Brazil sends planes, ships for Air France Flight 447 search

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government said on Monday that three Air Force planes and three Navy ships are in route to take part on the search effort for the Air France Flight 447, some 1,100 kilometers off the coast of the Brazilian city of Natal in the country's northeastern region.

    The French government is also helping, with a military aircraft which took off from Senegal earlier on Monday.

    Due to the remote location, authorities considered the search "extremely difficult."

    According to several international treaties, a large part of the Atlantic Ocean is under Brazil's responsibility, which is why the country is in charge of the search efforts.

    The Air France plane, an Airbus carrying 228 people, left Rio on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. local time, and should have landed in Paris on Monday morning.

    Family members and friends of the likely plane crash victims are gathered at the Rio International Airport Tom Jobim and in a hotel in Rio's Barra neighborhood where Air France has set up a reference center. The company has yet not released the list of passengers.

A relative of the missing airliner's victims is surrounded by journalists at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport, Brazil, June 1, 2009. An Air France airliner with 228 people onboard missing over the Atlantic Ocean after its takeoff from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday was probably hit by lightning and suffered an electrics failure while flying through an Atlantic storm, said Air France on Monday.

The mayor of Rio Eduardo Paes is at the airport. Marcelo Parente, Rio's government chief of staff, is reportedly among the likely victims. The local press also reports that Michelin's President for South America, Luis Roberto Anastacio, and a member of Brazil's former royal family, Pedro Luiz de Orleans e Braganca, were also flying the plane.

    It is reported that Erich Heine, chairman of the board of Thyssen Krupp's Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (TKCSA), which will be Latin America's largest steel mill complex, is among the likely victims of Air France's Flight 447.

    The plane took off from the international Airport of Rio do Janeriro on Sunday and it was flying to Paris, France.

    The plane found a turbulence zone after leaving the Brazilian aerial control area at 11 p.m. local time, and its last contact with ground was at 11:14 p.m. Brazil's time.