RIO DE JANEIRO – An Air France jet with 228 people on a flight to Paris vanished over the Atlantic Ocean

An Air France jet with 228 people on a flight to Paris vanished over the Atlantic Ocean after flying into towering thunderstorms and sending an automated message that the electrical system had failed. A vast search began Monday, but all aboard were feared killed.

Military aircraft scrambled out to the center of the Atlantic, far from the coasts of Brazil and West Africa, and France sought U.S. satellite help to find the wreckage. The first military ship wasn’t expected to reach the area where the plane disappeared until Wednesday.

If there are no survivors, it would be the world’s worst aviation disaster since 2001.

Pilots flying a commercial jet from Paris to Rio de Janeiro for Brazil’s largest airline, TAM, spotted what they thought was fire in the ocean along the Air France jet’s route early Monday, the airline said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

Brazilian Air Force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said authorities were investigating the report, according to the Agencia Brasil official news service.

“There is information that the pilot of a TAM aircraft saw several orange points on the ocean while flying over the region … where the Air France plane disappeared,” Amaral said.

“After arriving in Brazil, the pilot found out about the disappearance (of the Air France plane) and said that he thought those points on the ocean were fire.” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090602/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_plane