United Nations Radio

An official from the United Nations weather agency on Tuesday says it is highly unlikely that lightning or inclement weather alone caused the crash of the Air France jet that disappeared in a storm Sunday night.

Herbert Puempel of the World Meteorological Organization, WMO, emphasized that while it was still too early to come to a conclusion on the cause of the crash, most aircraft are equipped to fly in bad weather:

"It is very, very improbable that any single cause would lead to an accident. Most major aircraft disasters are typically related to a concatenation of events, multiple influence factors. There are very, very few cases in the history of aviation that a single cause would have been at the origin of a weather related accident. "

Mr. Puempel told journalists in Geneva that WMO would be on standby to provide any extra information or support to Brazil, including details from reports by two Lufthansa jets believed to have been in the same area a half hour before the missing Air France flight.

Diane Bailey, United Nations.
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