AER LINGUS yesterday confirmed that two of its employees were travelling on the Air France Rio-Paris passenger flight that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.
The airline said it was working closely with Air France, the French authorities and the respective embassies of the two members of staff. It is understood that the men were from eastern Europe and had worked as baggage handlers at Dublin airport.
“Aer Lingus would like to extend its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the staff and all those lost in this terrible accident,” the company said.
Siptu said that it was saddened to hear of the deaths of the men, who were members of the trade union.
“Our sympathies go out to members of their families, some of whom are also living and working in Ireland,” said Siptu national industrial secretary Gerry McCormack, who also offered condolences on the loss of three young Irish doctors who were also on the flight.
“Our sympathies also go out to the families of Aisling Butler, Jane Deasy and Eithne Walls whose lives were tragically cut short by this terrible disaster, ” he said.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian defence minister said military planes have found the wreckage of the Air France jet .
Nelson Jobim said there was ‘‘no doubt’’ that the 5-km (3-mile) strip of wreckage was from the Airbus A330 that went missing early on Monday after flying into stormy weather.
‘‘It confirms that the plane fell in this area,’’ Mr Jobim said at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, from where the plane took off on Sunday night for its planned route to Paris.
But the French defence ministry has not yet confirmed that aircraft seats, debris and kerosene patches spotted by Brazilian military planes 650km northeast of Brazil is wreckage from the missing aircraft.
The French marine exploration institute IFREMER yesterday dispatched the Pourquoi Pas, a research vessel equipped with undersea robots, to the zone where the debris were sighted.
French environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo said it was a race against time to find the wreckage and the plane’s black box flight recorder, without which the crash remained “incomprehensible”.
He warned that the black box would only emit signals for 30 days. But the Atlantic search area between the coasts of Brazil and Africa remains vast and depths range from 3,000-6,000m, with currents so strong that the box might never be found.
French defence minister Hervé Morin said he had rerouted “all sea and air resources” available to the search and recovery mission.
From its former west African colony of Senegal, France has dispatched two Atlantique 2 sea patrol aircraft, which are equipped with sophisticated radar and detection systems.
A Falcon 50, used for maritime surveillance, took off from Lorient, in Brittany.
French landing craft abandoned a military exercise near Portugal to head for the crash zone. La Ventôse, a frigate based in the West Indies, also headed for the mid-Atlantic.
Brazil’s navy, which expects several of its ships to reach the area today, said three commercial ships had arrived at the spot but had not yet found any traces of the plane.
Dr John Hegarty, provost of Trinity College, from where the three Irish doctors graduated, said yesterday that the staff and students of the school of medicine in particular, wished to extend their deepest sympathies to the Butler, Deasy and Walls families.
“The loss of such young, vibrant and promising women at the outset of their careers in medicine and in such tragic circumstances has stunned the college from which they so recently graduated,” said Dr Hegarty.
“Our thoughts are with the families and their classmates.”
A spokeswoman for the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin said staff were “deeply upset and dismayed by the news”.
Dr Walls joined the hospital’s ophthalmic team in January 2009 and Dr Deasy was due to take up a position there on July 1st.
“The hospital wishes to extend our thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of all passengers on board the Air France flight but particularly the families and friends of the three Irish doctors at this difficult time,” the spokeswoman said.
A service was held in the chapel in Tallaght Hospital where, a spokeswoman said, Dr Walls and Dr Deasy had been interns and Dr Butler was a member of staff in the emergency department.
Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that an Irishman had also been on the flight list but did not board the aircraft.
A member of the man’s family said he took an Iberia flight from Rio to Madrid and had never been booked on the Air France flight.
He said the flights boarded at roughly the same time, which may have caused the confusion.