Multiple sources are reporting the worst news possible about Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janiero to Paris--it more than likely crashed in the Atlantic.
The NYT reports that Air France has already presumed that all 228 people aboard are dead.
Officials said Monday that a search had begun for the wreckage in a vast swath of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Air France is extremely distraught and the whole team of Air France is suffering," Pierre Henri Gourgeon, the chief executive of Air France-KLM, told reporters in Paris. "We would like to say to the relatives of the victims that we are totally with them and will make every effort to help them."
TF1, France's biggest television station, reports that Air France is calling it "an aerial catastrophy." Understatement of the year so far, in my view.
CNN quotes Gourgeon about what may be Flight 447's last moments before it lost contact.
The first three hours of what was to have been an 11-hour flight appear to have been uneventful, CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said.
But about 4:15 a.m. Paris time, Flight 447's automatic system began a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that "several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down," he said.
"This succession of messages signals a totally unforeseeable, great difficulty," he said. "Something quite new within the plane."
During that time, there was no contact with the crew, Gourgeon said.
"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic," he added.
The BBC says that at around 0214 GMT this morning (9:14 pm Eastern last night), the Airbus used in the flight suffered a short circuit--possibly as a result of being hit by lightning.
This is shaping up to be one of the worst air disasters ever.
Update: Air France has set up a Website where relatives and others can keep up with news about this tragedy--in French and in English. According to this list, there were six Americans on board.
Update #2: The BBC has posted a timeline for the flight. It reports that French officials have already ruled out hijacking.
Update #3: KATC-TV in Lafayette, Louisiana reports that the missing Americans are a couple from Lafayette from The Woodlands, Texas living in Brazil. (h/t to NYFM)
Update #4: NPR quotes an Air France spokeswoman as saying "there is no hope" anyone aboard that flight survived. Also, several sources report that many experts don't think lightning could have caused the plane to go down. HLN says rescuers are searching along 200 miles of coastline.