France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) and transport minister Jean-Louis Borloo speak at the crisis center at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris June 1, 2009. [REUTERS/Guillaume Baptiste]

Nicolas Sarkozy said, "We have sent boats and planes to the area. Our Spanish friends are helping us, the Brazilians are helping a lot too. We have asked the Americans for help using their satellites, primarily to locate the site of the catastrophe. We will do everything possible to recover as much as we can of the plane to figure out what happened."

At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Rio's international airport, Air France set up information centers for family members.

Jorge Assuncao, Rio de Janeiro Air France Manager, said, "At the moment we have opened a center to receive the relatives. We opened another center in Rio de Janeiro. We are receiving the family members and friends of the passengers who were on board our flight."

Air France flight 447 carried two-hundred-and-28 passengers and crew.

The airline says the jet flew into storms and heavy turbulence four hours into its flight.

Analysts doubt lightning and turbulence would have brought the plane down. But they note that rough weather may have triggered a series of malfunctions that led to its disappearance.

(CCTV June 2, 2009)