Brazilian Defense minister, Nelson Jobim, said on Tuesday, June 2, that there was "no doubt" that Flight AF447 had crashed into the Atlantic after Brazilian military aircraft found debris along a 5 km stretch of the ocean.

Speaking in Rio de Janeiro, Jobim said that the find "confirms that the plane went down in that area", hundreds of kilometers from the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

No bodies have yet been spotted among what was said to be metallic and non-metallic debris. Search aircraft continue to scour the area and the first navy ships are expected to arrive any time.

The wreckage was spotted about 1,000 km off the country's coast and included aircraft seats, an orange buoy, metallic objects and fuel slicks.

Brazilian commercial pilots said earlier on Tuesday that they had spotted what appeared to be fire in the Atlantic.

The Air France flight from Brazil to France with 228 people on board dropped off radar screens on Monday morning, hours after taking off from Rio de Janeiro.

The authorities say they are still trying to determine what caused the accident but think there is no chance of finding survivors.

The airliner had encountered a severe thunderstorm before sending an automated message saying that its electrical system had failed at 02:14 GMT on Monday.

Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, Air France's chief executive, said "several electrical systems had broken down".

"It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he said.

Jean-Louis Borloo, the French environment minister, said officials did not believe the Airbus A330-200 could have been brought down by something as simple as a bolt of lightning, which previous reports had suggested.

"There really had to be a succession of extraordinary events to be able to explain this situation," he told RTL radio.

He said "the race against the clock has begun" to find the aircraft's two data recorders, commonly known as "black boxes", which emit signals for up to 30 days.

Jobim said the recorders could be on the ocean floor as far down as 3,000 m.

Alain Bouillard, who led the probe into the crash of a Concorde in July 2000, has been put in charge of France's accident investigation team.

Herve Morin, France's Defense minister, said "we have no signs so far" of terrorism, but all hypotheses must be studied.

Air France said the 216 passengers from 32 countries comprised 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby. More than half of the passengers were either French or Brazilian. There were also 12 French crew members on board.

If confirmed that all 228 people on board are dead, it would be the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accident for more than a decade.

Mercopress

The Airbus A-330's last known location was unclear. Air France says that a short-circuit message was received at 02:14 GMT, 15 minutes after turbulence, while Brazil Air Force declares that last contact with the air plane was at 01:33 GMT off northern Brazil coast.

An Air France spokesman declared that the jet was probably struck by a lightening, provoking the short-circuit.

The Brazilian Air Force said its planes had begun searching for the airliner off the northeast coast of the South American country, soon after the loss of contact. France also sent a plane taking off from the Senegalese coast.

Flight AF 447 has 216 passengers and 12 crew on board. It left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 pm (22:00 GMT) and was expected to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday at 11:15 am (09:15 GMT). "Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from flight AF 447," an Air France spokesman said.

As there is "no hope to find survivors," according to French airport sources, Air France and the Charles de Gaulle Airport started to give away details about the passengers that were on board of the plane that disappeared.

216 passengers were on board: 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and one baby. 12 Air France employees were also on board, 3 pilots and co-pilots and 9 hosts. Italian newspaper claim five Italians were on board.

Henry Wilson, a Brazilian Air Force spokesman, said planes had taken off from the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil's northeast coast to look for the Air France jet. An Air France-KLM spokeswoman in Amsterdam said there had been no radio contact with the missing plane "for a while".

The plane was an Airbus 330-200, according to the Paris airports authority website. Air France said relatives of people travelling on board flight AF 447 were being taken care of in a special area of Charles de Gaulle airport.

Brazil had two major plane crashes in 2006 and 2007, raising concerns about the safety of air travel in Latin America's largest country. In July 2007, all 187 people on board and 12 people on the ground died when a TAM airline Airbus A 320 overshot a runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport.

In September 2006, a Gol airline passenger jet crashed in the Amazon jungle after it and a small private plane collided. All 154 people on board died.

Airbus Note

Airbus regrets to confirm that an Airbus A330-200 operated by Air France has been lost about 3.5 hours after departure. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, Flight AF 447, from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to Paris (France).

The missing aircraft involved in the accident, registered under the number F-GZCP, was MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 660, delivered to Air France from the production line in April 2005. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 18,800 flight hours in some 2,500 flights. It was powered by CF6-80E1 engines. At this time no further factual information is available.

In line with ICAO Annex 13 international convention, Airbus has offered full technical assistance to the investigation board. The investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant board and it would be inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the causes of the accident.

The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident.

Tropical Weather Zone

Authorities say Flight 447 was proceeding normally for at least the first four hours after takeoff, when it passed out of radar contact with Brazil beyond the Fernando de Noronha archipelago.

The Airbus A-330 later crossed through a tropical weather zone near the equator that frequently spawns strong turbulence and powerful thunderstorms. At about that time, the plane transmitted an automatic message reporting an electrical failure.

An Air France spokesman said a combination of circumstances, including lightning, could have brought down the plane. Lightning strikes on planes are common, however, and aviation experts say that alone could not explain what apparently was a disastrous crash into the ocean.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris Monday to offer his sympathy to passengers' families. He told reporters the chance of finding any survivors is very small.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he held out hope for survivors, but the French News Agency (AFP) reported he had spoken with the French leader by telephone earlier and that the conversation "was an exchange of condolences."

Search planes and ships from France, Brazil and Spain are looking for any sign of what happened to the big jet, which carried 216 passengers and 12 crew members.

Many of the passengers on board were Brazilian, French or German citizens. Nationals from more than two dozen countries, including two people from the United States, also were aboard the commercial jet.

Mr. Sarkozy said France has asked the United States to use its spy satellites and listening devices to help in the search effort. He told reporters it will be difficult to find traces of the plane, because the search area is immense.

Aviation experts say flight-recorder equipment aboard the Airbus automatically will broadcast a locator signal for 30 days, but that the ocean depths could sharply limit the signal's range.

MP/Bzz/VoA

Flights will leave from Guarulhos International Airport for Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, making one stop at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport.

"Launching this new route is another important step in our expansion plans," says Lincoln Amano, Varig's commercial director.

"The Company currently operates two daily flights to Germany; with the addition of the São Paulo-Paris-Rome route, we are further increasing the number of flights connecting South America and Europe." 

In addition to Frankfurt, Germany, Varig currently offers international service to Bogota, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Caracas, Venezuela.

France and Italy are two of the most popular destinations for tourists from around the world.  According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), both rank among the top 10 most popular countries for Brazilian tourists.

This new route will also serve the increasing demand for Europeans looking to travel to Brazil: approximately 275,000 French tourists traveled to Brazil in 2006, while nearly 300,000 Italians visited the country over the same period.

   Origin          Destination   Frequency   Departure*     Arrival*

  Sao Paulo           Paris        Daily      11:59 PM      4:20 PM
    Paris           Sao Paulo      Daily      11:50 PM      6:50 AM
  Sao Paulo           Rome         Daily      11:59 PM      7:15 PM
    Rome            Sao Paulo      Daily       8:50 PM      6:50 AM
    Paris             Rome         Daily       5:30 PM      7:15 PM
    Rome              Paris        Daily       8:50 PM     10:45 PM

  *Local time

On the final day of his visit to France, today, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, at the Matignon Palace.

Afterwards, Lula received the general secretary of the French Socialist Party, Françoise Hollande, at the Marigny residence, where he was staying.

President Lula also had a work meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, after which representatives of the two governments signed agreements in the military sphere, according to information from Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations.

They also had agreements related to the technology and implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol and the construction of a bridge that will connect Amapá in northern Brazil and French Guiana.

Lula’s last official engagement in Paris was a visit to the Air and Space Museum, where he saw a replica of the 14 Bis airplane, built by the Brazilian aviator, Alberto Santos Dumont, the man Brazilians believe was the inventor of the airplane.

The director of the museum, Gerard Feltzer, presented Lula with a copy of the medal that Santos Dumont received from the Aeroclub of France in 1906.

ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br

At a reception at the Palais de L’Elysée (Elysian Palace), offered by President Jacques Chirac, Lula said that poverty had never gotten so much attention in the past.

"It has been discussed at G-8 meetings and the World Economic Forum. I think we are making progress," said Lula to an audience of 7,000.

Lula recalled that Chirac had been one of first world leaders to join him in the fight against hunger.

He thanked the French for warmly receiving him. "France is showing its spirit of solidarity… what I see is that in France there is no half-way democracy, only total democracy," he said.

In his speech, Chirac praised Lula for his efforts to raise funds for development.

Before the reception, Chirac and Lula watched a military parade on the Champs Elysées. One hundred and eighty Brazilian soldiers marched in the parade.

ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br

At his meeting, yesterday, June 13, with the Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stressed the long-standing friendship that exists between Brazil and France, where, according to Lula, Brazilians discover a “second home.”

The President recalled that France “welcomed Brazilian intellectuals, such as the writer Jorge Amado and the economist Celso Furtado, during the period of dictatorship.”

And that “it assured them the right to be citizens of the world at a time when repression and intolerance had taken over my country.”

Addressing an audience composed of French citizens and representatives of the Brazilian community in the grand hall of the Paris Prefecture, Lula observed that, for many countries, the French capital represents a “symbol of the right to think and protest.”

And he recalled that his party, the PT (Workers’ Party), was created to seek a better life for workers. “It was with this conviction that we founded the PT and fought for political democracy and social justice in my country.”

Earlier, the mayor of Paris had praised Lula for remaining true to his origins.

ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br

Today President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in Paris for commemorations of Brazil Year in France and France’s national holiday, Bastille Day.

This morning the President will open a seminar, Brazil: Global Player, at the Sorbonne University. Following that, he will meet with Brazilian and French businessmen.

And finally, he will participate in the closing ceremonies of the Civil Society Forum, which has brought together NGOs from Brazil and France for discussions on family farming, housing, solidarity economics and financing development.

In the evening, Lula will meet with the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, a socialist. And, finally, the President will attend the City Dance at the Bastille Plaza.

A number of Brazilian performers will be present, including Gilberto Gil, Brazil’s Minister of Culture, and Daniela Mercury.

On Thursday, July 14, Bastille Day, Lula has been invited to the Champs Elysées parade. Later he will meet separately with President Jacques Chirac, and mayors from French cities.

Lula will also visit the Brazil Year exposition, which presents a diverse demonstration of what Brazil is through exhibits and shows.

On his last day in France, Friday, July 15, Lula will have breakfast with prime minister Villepin, followed by a working meeting with president Chirac, which wil include the signing of various agreements.

Then Lula will visit the Air Museum, where he will see a replica of the 14 Bis aircraft that Santos Dumont flew in the first ever public demonstration of flight on October 23, 1906, in Paris.

ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br