A Filipino was among the 228 people on Air France Flight 447 that probably crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday evening, the Philippine embassy in Brazil said on Tuesday.

The Airbus A330-200, bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly after its takeoff from Rio de Janeiro at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT) on Sunday. It was scheduled to arrive in Paris at 11:15 a.m. local time (0915 GMT) on Monday.

Embassy Charge d'Affaires Christopher Montero, in a report to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, said the embassy was informed by Air France office in Brazil that only the nationalities of passengers are available at this time.

The French embassy in Brasilia, however, assured Philippine embassy officials that the complete identity of the Filipino passenger will be provided as soon as it is ascertained, Mometero said.

Earlier, Air France said that the airliner was probably hit by lightning and suffered an electrics failure while flying through an Atlantic storm.

France and Brazil have dispatched military aircraft and started a thorough scouring of areas possible to find the wreckage although officials have said there were little chances for the safe return of any survivors on board.

"The chances of finding any survivors are very slim," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport following his meeting with relatives of passengers on the plane on Monday.

Air France announced Monday that victims aboard the airplane were from 32 countries, including 58 Brazilians, 61 French, 26 Germans, nine Chinese and nine Italians.

Source: Xinhua