The Air France Airbus A330 jetliner with 228 people on aboad went missing on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. It was carrying 216 passengers of 32 nationalities, including seven children and one baby, Air France said. Sixty-one were French citizens, 58 Brazilian and 26 German. Twelve crew members were also on board.

It was presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after hitting heavy turbulence. Air France said the Airbus flew into stormy weather four hours after its scheduled take-off from the Brazilian city and shortly afterwards sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults. Company spokesman Francois Brousse said several of the plane’s mechanisms had malfunctioned, preventing it from making contact with air traffic controllers.

The airliner might have been hit by lightning, he said. The Brazilian Air Force said the plane was far out over the sea when it went missing. France and Brazil sent military planes and ships to try to locate wreckage between Brazil and West Africa.

“We will search all night long and keep going through dawn,” said Colonel Jorge Amaral of the Brazilian Air Force. “We have to work as if it were possible to find survivors.”

If none are found, it would be the worst disaster in Air France’s 75-year history, more deadly than the crash of one of the company’s supersonic Concorde planes in 2000.

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