Wreckage seen in search area for missing plane

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Searchers looking for a missing Air France jetliner spotted wreckage Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean that may have come from the plane, Brazilian aviation officials said Tuesday.

The Airbus 330 went missing over the Atlantic early Monday on the way from Brazil to France.

An airplane seat, orange life vest, small white fragments and signs of oil and kerosene were found 700 kilometers (434 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, said Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral. The search will continue, Amaral said.

He said there is not enough material to officially say this is the wreckage from Flight 447, which disappeared early Monday with 228 people onboard.

The debris was found 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the plane's flight path, another Brazilian Air Force official said.

The Airbus A330 encountered heavy turbulence early Monday, about three hours after it left Rio de Janeiro for Paris on an 11-hour flight, according to Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands around 354 kilometers (220 miles) off the northeast coast of Brazil. It lies in what could be the flight path between Rio de Janeiro and Paris.

A search was also conducted in waters off the African nation of Senegal, where a crew from the Brazilian airline TAM said they saw "shiny spots" in the sea along the route of Flight 447.

Senegal is northeast of Fernando de Noronha and near what would have been the plane's presumed flight path.

The plane carried 216 passengers -- 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby -- and 12 crew members, Air France said. Of the crew, 11 were French and one was Brazilian.