Eight Chinese Nationals Onboard Missing Air France Plane

An Air France passenger plane has gone missing over the Atlantic off the Brazilian coast with 228 people from 32 countries on board, including eight Chinese nationals.

Flight 447, an Airbus A330 bound for Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly after its takeoff from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday evening.

Officials said the missing plane ran into a tower of thunderstorms and heavy turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean, fearing that it was hit by lightning and all aboard were lost.

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon is Air France-KLM CEO.

"What I can tell you is that after crossing the stormy area, the automatic messages were sent by the airplane system indicating a malfunction within the aircraft. The way we interpret these messages is that the plane is in a difficult situation, it probably came up against something very strong when it crossed the area of thunderstorms, and at this moment the aircraft apparatus came unplugged and then we received a message confirming this."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told families of those aboard that chance of finding survivors was slim.

"The chances of finding surviving people are at the moment very thin. We have asked for the help of the Americans via their satellites, first to localize the place where the catastrophe happened. Everything must be done to find the maximum of elements from this plane, to understand what happened."

Brazil's military continued its search for the plane off the country's northeast coast late on Monday, while the French military scoured the Atlantic off the West African coast.

The flight was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members.

Air France said it expressed its sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew members aboard.

It is Air France's biggest disaster since the airline was founded 70 years ago.