Satellites, planes and Navy ships are scouring an immense area of the Atlantic Ocean more than 24 hours after an Air France jet carrying 228 people vanished amid a lightning storm off the Brazilian coast. The incident could become the world’s worst commercial air disaster in nearly a decade.

“The disappearance of the Airbus 330-200 traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris is “a catastrophe like Air France has never before known,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who personally consoled passengers’ families at Charles de Gaulle International Airport. He said, “Prospects of finding survivors are very small.”

The mystery continued to vex investigators from several nations. Flight 447’s last communication was an automated message at 10:14 p.m. ET Sunday reporting a technical problem before the jet reached a monitoring station in Cape Verde.

[ Source USAToday ]