法国失踪客机乘客生还机会渺茫

It's been more than 24 hours since an air France jet disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. There is little hope any of the nearly two hundred and 30 people on board have survived.

The jet reportedly ran into a tower of thunderstorms and heavy turbulence, but the mystery of its disappearance remains yet to be solved.

There were 228 people, including 12 crew members on board this 4-year-old Airbus A330, which took off from Rio de Janeiro at 7 P-M local time on Sunday.

It left the radar screens of Brazilian air controllers after it passed the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, three hours into its flight.

Air France says the plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence" about 30 minutes later.

It then sent an automatic message reporting electrical failure and a loss of cabin pressure.

The airline says that is the last information it has about Flight 447.

Nicolas Sarkozy, French President, said, "Everybody can imagine what a mother who lost her daughter can think, what a bride-to-be who has lost her future husband can think. I told them the truth, which is that that the possibility of finding surviving people is very thin."

Meanwhile, Brazil says the pilots of a TAM airlines jet saw an object on fire in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.

Analysts believe the absence of a mayday call means something happened very quickly. Air France says the pilot of the plane was very experienced.

Dominique Bussereau, Secretary of State for Transport, said, "The flying crew in charge of the plane is very experienced. The captain has done more than 11-thousand hours of flight of which more than 17-hundred hours flying this type of A330, A340."

This is the biggest accident for Air France since it was created 70 years ago.

It would be the deadliest commercial airline disaster since 2001.

Among the passengers, 61 are French and 58 are Brazilians.

There are also people from 30 other countries, including 9 Chinese.