Airbus A330-200 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members disappeared between Brazil and France. The aircraft left Rio de Janeiro last Sunday at 7 p.m. local time and was expected to arrive in Paris on Monday at 0915 GMT (5:15 a.m EDT). The aircraft vanished Sunday about four hours after its departure from Rio de Janiero.


According to Brazil's defense minister, an airplane seat, a fuel slick and pieces of white debris scattered over three miles of open ocean marked the site in the mid-Atlantic Tuesday where Air France Flight 447 plunged to its doom, about 400 miles northeast of these islands off Brazil's coast. Minister Nelson Jobim added, "I can confirm that the five kilometers of debris are those of the Air France plane." He also said that no bodies has been found and there was no sign of life.