Tue, June 02, 2009
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A pilot from Brazil's airline TAM may have spotted a burning piece of wreckage of the Air France passenger plane that disappeared early Monday morning.
The Brazilian Air Force confirmed late Monday that the pilot saw "orange-colored spots" on the Atlantic Ocean, about 40 minutes after the last contact between Air France Flight 447 and Brazil's air control center.
Investigators are now searching for more information to confirm whether these "glowing spots" are the burning pieces of the plane wreckage, the Brazilian Air Force said.
The TAM pilot "saw glowing spots on the high sea on its path between Europe and Brazil, about 1,300 km off the island Fernando de Noronha," the TAM airline said in a statement. Fernando de Noronha is about 350 km off the Brazilian coast.
Air France Airbus A330-200, Flight 447, with 228 people on board, was probably hit by lightning and suffered an electrics failure while flying through an Atlantic storm, according to Air France. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday in Paris that the chances of finding any survivors are "very slim."
The airplane, bound for Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly after its takeoff from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT).
