Hoping against hopelessness
A vast search began on Monday for an Air France jet missing with 228 people. The flight from Rio De Janeiro to Paris vanished over the Atlantic Ocean after flying into towering thunderstorms and sending an automated message that the electrical system had failed.
Images: Air France plane with 228 people disappears over Atlantic
All aboard were feared killed.
Military aircraft scrambled out to the center of the Atlantic, far from the coasts of Brazil and West Africa, and France sought U.S. satellite help to find the wreckage. The first military ship wasn't expected to reach the area where the plane disappeared until Wednesday.
If there are no survivors, it would be the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001.
Text: Agencies
Image: Members of the Brazilian Pelican military squad prepare to departure from Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, to take part in the search of an Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, June 1, 2009. (Photograph copyright AP. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited)
