Air France plane crashes into the Atlantic,228 feared dead

A missing Air France passenger jet with 228 people on board was probably struck by lightning and suffered an electrical failure as it flew through a fierce Atlantic storm.

“The most likely thing is that the plane was hit by lightning. The plane was in a stormy area with strong turbulence,which provoked problems,” said Francois Brouse,Air France’s director of communications.

In a separate statement,the airline said the plane’s systems had sent an automatic error message at 0214 GMT reporting a “fault in an electronic circuit” during its flight from Rio de Janeiro towards Paris.