French airliner missing over Atlantic, 228 on board (Third Lead)

June 8th, 2009 SO PAULO - Search teams Sunday recovered the bodies of 17 people from the Air France plane that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board June 1, a Brazilian Air Force spokesman said. While Brazilian teams retrieved nine bodies, French teams recovered eight, Brazilian Air Force spokesman Henry Munhoz said in the northeastern city of Recife.

June 7th, 2009 PARIS - The French Navy has found another body from the Air France airliner that plunged into the Atlantic with 228 people aboard, a spokesman said here Sunday. The body was spotted by a helicopter and recovered from waters about 1,200 km northeast of the Brazilian coastline by the frigate Ventose.

June 7th, 2009 SAN PAULO - The bodies of two men from the Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil have been found by search teams. "We confirm the recovery from the water of debris and bodies from the Air France plane," Sky News quoted Brazilian air force spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral, as saying.

June 6th, 2009 BRASILIA - The Brazilian Navy said Saturday that it recovered two male bodies from the Air France plane that crashed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean last Sunday. "This morning at 8:14 a.m.

June 3rd, 2009 French confirm sighting of Air France plane debrisFERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil — French officials say debris found in the Atlantic is that of missing Air France Flight 447. French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck says French military planes surveyed the remains initially spotted by Brazilian planes, and determined that the debris "corresponds to this plane." Prazuck says it is time to move to a "naval operation" to collect the remains and then "a submarine one" to try to find the plane's black boxes.

June 3rd, 2009 BRASILIA - Plane wreckage spotted by Brazilian jets is from the Air France airliner that vanished over the Atlantic Ocean, it has been confirmed. Brazil's defence minister Nelson Jobim said the debris was "without a doubt" from the jet that disappeared with 228 people on board.

June 2nd, 2009 RIO DE JANEIRO/PARIS - Search efforts were renewed early Tuesday as 228 people were feared dead in the crash of an Air France jet in the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. A pilot from Brazil's airline TAM possibly spotted a burning piece of wreckage on the Atlantic Ocean while he was crossing the Atlantic early Monday morning.

June 2nd, 2009 SAO PAULO/PARIS - Wreckage has been found in the Atlantic Ocean possibly from the Air France plane that disappeared Monday with 228 people on board, a spokesman for the Brazilian air force said Tuesday. A seat and traces of oil and kerosene were found about 650 km northeast of the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, air force spokesman Jorge Amaral said in Brasilia.

June 2nd, 2009 Airliner, small plane nearly collide in NCWASHINGTON — Federal safety officials said a regional airliner and a smaller plane came within 10 feet of colliding on an airport runway in Charlotte, N.C. The incident occurred Friday at 10:17 a.m.

June 2nd, 2009 BUENOS AIRES - Air France identified 32 nationalities among the 216 passengers on board Air France 447, which has been missing since 0215 GMT Monday over the Atlantic on its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The information was posted on the airline's website.

June 2nd, 2009 RIO DE JANEIRO - A pilot from Brazil's airline TAM possibly spotted a burning piece of wreckage on the Atlantic Ocean while he was crossing the Atlantic early Monday morning. The Brazilian Air Force confirmed late Monday that the pilot saw "orange-coloured spots" in the middle of the Atlantic.

June 2nd, 2009 LONDON - The pilot of a Brazilian plane has said that he thinks he has seen the damaged parts of the Air France aircraft that reportedly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday. This morning, pilots from Brazilian commercial airline TAM said they had seen what they thought was fire on the ocean in the area the plane went missing early on Monday morning.

June 1st, 2009 PARIS - An Air France airliner with 228 people on board has gone missing off Brazil, French media reports said Monday. They said the Airbus 330 was on a flight to Paris from Rio de Janeiro and contact was lost when the plane was over the Atlantic.

June 1st, 2009 PARIS/RIO DE JANEIRO - An Air France flight with 228 people on board was lost over the Atlantic Monday morning and is presumed to have crashed into the sea. The Airbus A330-200, flight number AF 447, left Rio de Janeiro for Paris Sunday at 2203 GMT, but the plane lost radio contact with Brazilian air control at about 0130 GMT, the Chief Executive of Air France, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, told journalists in Paris.

June 1st, 2009 PARIS/RIO DE JANEIRO - An Air France flight with 228 people on board went missing over the Atlantic Monday morning, sparking a major search and rescue mission off the Brazilian coast, according to reports in both countries. The Airbus A330-200, flight number AF 447, left Rio de Janeiro for Paris, but radio contact was lost with the plane shortly after 0600 GMT, the reports said.