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Air France Chinese passengers identified

By Chen Hong in Shenzhen, Wu Yong in Benxi and Xin Dingding in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-03 07:33

A six-member purchasing team from a steel company, a technology executive and a businessman were among the nine Chinese on the Air France plane which is presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.

The ninth person has not yet been identified, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

A Brazilian couple, relatives of a passenger on board the ill-fated Air France flight AF447, console each other after being informed about the accident in Rio de Janiero Tuesday. [AFP]

Flight 447, an Airbus 330-200 bound for Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly after taking off from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 pm (6 am on Monday, Beijing time) with 228 people on board.

Brazilian search planes reported spotting debris in the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday that could be wreckage of the plane.

Authorities from both France and Brazil have said they expect no survivors from the crash.

Among the Chinese on the plane was a team of six from Liaoning-based Benxi Iron & Steel (Group), which was in Brazil for talks on buying iron ore.

The company would not reveal their names but insiders said the team included Chen Chiping, deputy manager of the group's international trade division and wife of Liaoning deputy governor Liu Guoqiang; and Li Mingwen, the group's deputy general manager.

The remaining four are Zhang Qingbo, assistant to the group general manager, Sun Lianyou, the group's iron mill director, and two other employees, Shen Zuobing and Gao Xing.

The other two identified passengers aboard are Zhuo Jiachun, 27, who worked with Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies, and 35-year-old Zhejiang businessman Chen Qingwei, who was seeking investment immigrant status in Brazil.

Liu Dahong, Benxi Iron & Steel's public relations executive, said Tuesday that the trip to Brazil was planned long ago.

They left China on May 17 for Australia before heading to Brazil, and planned to return to China Tuesday, he said.

As there is no direct flight between Brazil and China, passengers usually transit in Paris.

Liu said the group plans to expand steel production to 13.6 million tons by 2012, up from 10 million tons in 2007, but the mines it owns in China can supply only 60 percent of the demand.

The company has sent personnel to console families of the missing people, he said.

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