French police explode suspect device at the airport where families wait for news of relatives from the missing Airbus on a Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

ROISSY, NEAR PARIS, FRANCE (JUNE 1, 2009) REUTERS -
Police cleared media and passengers away from Charles de Gaulle airport's terminal 2 on Monday (June 1) as media waited for news of the airbus plane that disapeared as it flew over the Atlantic.
The suspect package was blown up after media and passengers were cleared from the entrance.

Traffic was also stopped at one of the world's busiest airport.

A frantic air-sea search was under way to locate the missing Airbus and its 228 passengers and crew more than 12 hours after it was presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris early on Monday.

Air France said the Airbus A330 plane had hit stormy weather and "strong turbulence" and a spokesman said it could have been hit by lightning.

If so, it would be the worst air disaster caused by lightning, according to the Aviation Safety Network, but most experts said such a strike was unlikely to down a modern jet.

In the worst previous recorded incident blamed on lightning, 113 people were killed in 1962 on a Boeing 707, also operated by Air France, the Dutch-based database organisation said.