The lost Air France plane that left Rio de Janeiro for Paris Sunday night is still missing this afternoon and authorities worry that the plane crashed somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

"We can fear the worst," Dominique Bussereau, France's transportation minister, told Europe-1 radio today.

An Air France spokesperson told ABC News today that the airline was "without any news from Air France Flight 447 from Rio to Paris with 216 passengers on board and a crew of 12 people ... three pilots and nine flight attendants. Air France is very concerned about the emotions and worries of the families involved."

The plane lost contact with air traffic controllers in the early hours of the morning. An airport official told the news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) that the flight had been expected to land in Paris today at 5:15 a.m. ET. 

The Brazilian air force confirmed to ABC News that the plane was missing and said they had two planes out -- a P95 and a C-130 Hercules -- on a search-and-rescue mission near Fernando de Noronha Islands, off the coast of North East Brazil and 1,500 miles from Rio. French reconnaissance planes are also said to be involved in the search operation, with one of them leaving from Dakar, Senegal, earlier today.

An Air France spokesperson told The Associated Press that the flight left Rio Sunday night around 6 p.m. ET.

The head of Air France, Pierre Henri Gourgeon, told reporters at a news conference that the plane's last radio contact with Brazilian air control was at 9:30 p.m. ET. An automated message was sent from the plane to air traffic controllers at 10:14 p.m. after it experienced turbulence and thunderstorms saying the plane had experienced an "electrical short circuit."

France's Environment Minister Jean Louis Borloo brushed off rumors of a hijacking, telling reporters that the plane probably suffered an accident of some kind.

An Air France spokesperson told AFP that the plane was probably struck by lightning and suffered an electrical failure as it flew through a storm in the Atlantic.

In an interview with the AP, aviation expert Chris Yates of Jane's Aviation said that the likely "conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion."

He added, "I would suggest that potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilots on board didn't have a chance to make that emergency call 

Little Hope for Missing Air France Flight 447 Passengers, Crew

Hope is now fading for the passengers and crew of the missing aircraft, which include seven children, a baby, 126 men and 82 women.

The plane's manufacturer, Airbus, released a statement saying it would be "inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the causes of the "The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident," the statement read

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also shared his "extreme worry" over the missing plane and has sent ministers to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to monitor the situation. Sarkozy himself is due to arrive at the crisis center this morning.

Sonia Gallego and Gabriel O'Rorke contributed to the reporting of this story from London, Christophe Schpoliansky contributed from Paris, as did The Associated Press.