Three Swedes on ill- fated Air France flight
Sweden’s embassy in Paris has confirmed that three Swedes were among the 228 passengers on board an Air France plane which is feared to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Monday.
According to information from the embassy, the Swedes on board the Air France flight 447, which disappeared from radar about 350 kilometres off of the Brazilian west coast, include two women and one child, the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reports.
Air France initially reported on its website that one Swedish citizen had been on board the flight, but Arne Kallin, a spokesperson with Sweden’s embassy in Paris, later told SvD that, in addition to the woman, another woman and her child were also on the plane.
According to the Expressen newspaper, the presumed Swedish victims include 34-year-old Christine Badre Schnabl and her 5-year-old son Philipe, as well as a 28-year-old woman who lived in Norway and was returning from a business trip in Brazil.
Schabl, who previously resided in Gothenburg, had been living in Rio de Janeiro for the last ten years and was returning to Sweden with her family for vacation.
Her husband and 3-year-old daughter had traveled on a separate flight because of the couple’s fears of air disasters.
“It’s impossible to comprehend that they are gone. It’s awful,” said her mother, Annika Badre, to Expressen.
In total, the Airbus 330 had passengers from 32 difference countries, according to the Air France website.
On Tuesday, rescuers continued to search for the plane, which is presumed to have crashed after hitting bad weather.
But hope of finding any survivors is fading fast, with French President Nicholas Sarkozy saying the chances of finding anyone alive as “very small”.
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According to information from the embassy, the Swedes on board the Air France flight 447, which disappeared from radar about 350 kilometres off of the Brazilian west coast, include two women and one child, the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reports.
Air France initially reported on its website that one Swedish citizen had been on board the flight, but Arne Kallin, a spokesperson with Sweden’s embassy in Paris, later told SvD that, in addition to the woman, another woman and her child were also on the plane.
According to the Expressen newspaper, the presumed Swedish victims include 34-year-old Christine Badre Schnabl and her 5-year-old son Philipe, as well as a 28-year-old woman who lived in Norway and was returning from a business trip in Brazil.
Schabl, who previously resided in Gothenburg, had been living in Rio de Janeiro for the last ten years and was returning to Sweden with her family for vacation.
Her husband and 3-year-old daughter had traveled on a separate flight because of the couple’s fears of air disasters.
“It’s impossible to comprehend that they are gone. It’s awful,” said her mother, Annika Badre, to Expressen.
In total, the Airbus 330 had passengers from 32 difference countries, according to the Air France website.
On Tuesday, rescuers continued to search for the plane, which is presumed to have crashed after hitting bad weather.
But hope of finding any survivors is fading fast, with French President Nicholas Sarkozy saying the chances of finding anyone alive as “very small”.
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