French nationals the greatest casualty on flight
There were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby.
The crew was made up of 11 French and one Brazilian.
Two Americans were aboard the plane, Michael Harris, a 60-year-old geologist in Devon Energy Corp’s Rio de Janeiro office, and his wife, Anne. They had moved from Houston in July.
Canadian Brad Clemes, a 49-year-old Coca-Cola executive working in Brussels, was also on the flight, according to a family friend. Clemes was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario.
German-based company ThyssenKrupp Steel AG said executive board member Erich Heine was on the flight, as was employee Claus-Peter Hellhammer.
Since 2007, Heine was responsible for building two steel plants in Rio de Janeiro and in Alabama.
Hellhammer, 28, was returning from a private trip to Brazil from his base in Duisburg, Germany.
Nineteen passengers were employees and relatives of a French electrical firm who had won a holiday for hitting sales targets.
Ten salesmen were from CGED, an electrical distributor, with their spouses.
French tyremaker Michelin lost three executives, including two senior Brazilian managers and Christine Pieraerts, a 28-year-old French engineer.
Michelin’s president for South America, Luiz Roberto Anastacio, 50, had been promoted on May 4 and was travelling to France to meet fellow top executives. He had worked for Michelin for 27 years.
Brazilian information systems director, Antonio Gueiros, with Michelin for over 20 years, was coming to Paris for a computer seminar.
Five Britons on the plane included 61-year-old British engineer Arthur Coakley, from near Whitby, North Yorkshire. His wife of 34 years, Patricia, broke down in tears as she described her “fabulous husband”, father to their three grown children.
“He worked so hard for his family, that’s all he wanted, to retire. It’s not going to happen, is it?” she told Britain’s Press Association.
Coakley was booked onto an earlier flight, but was bumped onto the doomed jet after the first flight was full. Patricia Coakley said her son Patrick raised the alarm, phoning to ask “What flight is Daddy on?”
She tried phoning her husband’s mobile on Monday but gave up Tuesday.
“Yesterday I was really optimistic, today maybe more realistic,” she said.
Prince Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, 26, a member of Brazil’s now-defunct royal family and a descendent of Dom Pedro II, the nation’s last emperor, was on the plane. So was sailor Zoran Markovic, 45, from the village of Kostelji in northwestern Croatia.
Air France said 11 of the 12 crew members were French and one Brazilian.
