Debris Found In Search For Missing Plane

Brazilian aircraft searching for an Air France airliner that vanished over the Atlantic Ocean have spotted plane wreckage, it has emerged.

A plane seat and other items were sighted 650km (400 miles) north-east of Brazil's Fernando de Noronha island, the Brazilian air force said.

It could not be immediately confirmed that the debris came from the Airbus.

A Bristol primary school pupil has been confirmed as one of the passengers on the Air France plane that has disappeared over the Atlantic.

Clifton College Preparatory School said 11-year-old Alexander Bjoroy was returning from Brazil after half-term break.

The plane which left Rio de Janeiro, bound for Paris, is believed to have flown into a storm. The plane lost contact with air traffic control and disappeared from civilian and military radar at around 2.50am on Monday morning, with an international search now underway.

The schoolboy's headmaster John Milne said: "Alexander joined the prep school in January 2009, and was a well-liked and respected boarder who will be sorely missed by his fellow pupils and staff.

"Our deepest sympathies and condolences are with the family in Brazil at this time."

Five Britons were among the 228 people on board the flight, along with 61 French, 58 Brazilians and 26 Germans.

One of the British victims - a woman from Wales - was travelling with three Irish doctors.

They have been named locally as Aisling Butler, of Roscrae, Co Tipperary, Jane Deasy of Dublin and Eithne Walls from Ballygowan, Co Down.

The father of Dr Butler, who had just turned 26, said he could not put his family's grief into words.

"We know Aisling is gone, we are sure of that," John Butler said.

"It is just about trying to live now, I have to live for my wife and my only other daughter Lorna."

A special helpline has been set up for relatives and friends of those on the plane.

In France, the number is 0800 800 812. In Brazil, the number is 0800 881 20 20 and for those in other countries the number is 0033 1 57 02 10 55.

(JM/BMcC)