A currently officially unconfirmed report on JB Online, the on-line edition of a leading Brazilian newspaper, Jornal do Brasil, is stating that an Air France Airbus A330-200, flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, transmitted a Mayday distress call early in the morning of December 1 while flying over the South Atlantic.

The aircraft is now safe in Paris, but according to the report, it “dived” and lost altitude after or while passing through severe turbulence.

The incident reportedly happened some 680 nautical miles (nm) north-east of the Brazilian city of Fortaleza and about 750 nm south-east of Praia in the Cape Verde Islands.

According to the story, the Mayday signal was picked up by another A330-200, registration PT-MVG, belonging to the Brazilian airline TAM, at 03:05 Rio time. The Brazilian airliner was also flying from Rio to Paris.

On June 1, Air France Airbus A330-200 F-GZCP crashed into the South Atlantic, while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 people on board. The cause of the disaster remains a mystery, but the aircraft was traversing a region of storms at the time.