Brits may be on missing jet: Brown
British citizens may have been on board an Air France airliner which disappeared near Brazil, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.
As a search continued for the airliner which went missing over the Atlantic with more than 200 people aboard, it was revealed that the plane had an electrical problem.
Air France said it received a message in the early hours from the Airbus A330 aircraft, saying it had "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence".
It added that a message was received "signalling electrical circuit malfunction" on the plane, which was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The search for the plane - AF447, with 216 passengers and 12 crew abroad - was being carried out by the Brazilian air force.
Mr Brown told Sky News: "I do fear that there may be some British citizens on board. We are doing all the checking that is necessary."
The aircraft - with one baby and seven other children among the passengers - took off from Rio at around 10pm UK time on Sunday and was due to land at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at around 10.15am UK time. Contact with the plane was lost at around 3.20am UK time.
Brazilian planes searching for the missing aircraft took off from Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago of more than 20 islands about 220 miles off the coast of Brazil. The wings of the plane would have been made in Britain by Airbus UK.
Toulouse-based Airbus said that the aircraft "had been lost about 3.5 hours after departure".
It added that the plane, registered under the number F-GZCP, was Manufacturer Serial Number 660, and had been delivered to Air France in April 2005. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 18,800 flight hours in some 2,500 flights and was powered by CF6-80E1 engines.
