Air France's missing jet: the view from Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO —  There was an eerie backdrop to the dozens of Brazilian reporters who crowded the area behind the Air France counter in Galeao International Airport’s Terminal 1 today hungry for any speck of information: a long line of passengers checking in for Air France Flight 733, departing for Paris at 4:20 p.m.

They had to make do with interviewing those passengers, because family members of the missing Flight 447 who arrived at the airport to meet with counselors and await what was almost sure to be terrible news were escorted straight into a hall in the airport’s administrative building.

The mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, made an early appearance, for a sad reason: his chief of staff, Marcelo Parente had been on the flight with his wife. Names leaked out over the course of the day: Luiz Roberto Anastacio, president of Michelin for Latin America, Pedro Luiz de Orleans e Bragança, a member of Brazil’s no-longer-in-power royal family, a direct descendant of Emperor Dom Pedro II. It was not a surprise that so many important names were traveling on the flight: even with the Brazilian currency ever stronger, traveling to Europe is beyond the means of the vast majority of Brazilians.

The flight was, it turned out, less than half Brazilian. One mid-afternoon count had citizens of 31 countries on board, as disparate as the Philippines, Iceland, Angola and Hungary. This was truly an international flight.

First, it was reported that six Americans were on board; then one; then the number settled on two.  No names were released.

Late in the day, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral, Jr., and the vice president of Brazil, Jose Alencar, arrived at the airport and met with family members.  (Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was traveling in Central America.) Cabral had previously declared three days of official mourning.

The vice president told a throng of reporters that the family members “were demonstrating much serenity, much calm, much faith in God,” The governor added that families had asked how long before the search would be called off; he replied that even if weeks were needed, it would not be called off before people had answers.

They left, and the press bubble deflated; some sat down to file their reports; others took off into the night. I booked an 11:20 p.m. flight back to Sao Paulo.
 

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/brazil/090601/air-frances-missing-jet-the-view-rio-de-janeiro