Guelph man listed as passenger on lost flight

SAO PAULO, Brazil — An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris ran into a towering wall of thunderstorms and disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told families of those aboard today that “prospects of finding survivors are very small.”

Air France has confirmed that one Canadian citizen was on board the plane.

Radio station CJOY in Guelph, Ont., identified him as Brad Clemes, 49, a Coca-Cola executive who was born and raised in Guelph and lived in France.

A statement released this afternoon by the Department of Foreign Affairs said consular officials have been in contact with the missing Canadians family to offer assistance and support. It offered no further details, citing the Privacy Act.

“Our thoughts are with the family,” the statement said.

The area where the plane could have gone down is vast, in the middle of very deep Atlantic Ocean waters between Brazil and the coast of Africa. Brazil’s military searched for it off its northeast coast, while the French military scoured the ocean near the Cape Verde Islands off the West African coast.