154 Aboard French Jet Missing in Africa Flight

A DC-10 jetliner carrying 154 people from the Congo to Paris disappeared today shortly after taking off from a stopover in Chad, the French airline UTA said.

The flight originated in Brazzaville, Congo, and had made a stop in N’Djamena, Chad, the airline said. Contact was lost with the aircraft shortly after takeoff and there was no indication of the plane’s fate more than five hours after contact was lost, UTA said.

UTA Flight 772 was carrying 140 passengers and a crew of 14, the airline said.

The last radio contact between the plane and air traffic controllers, about 20 minutes after leaving the airport at N’Djamena, indicated everything was normal, the airline said.

The airline said there was no unusual weather in the area. It did not say what search measures were being taken.

The aircraft, purchased by UTA in 1973, had logged 60,000 hours in the air.

Northern Chad was long the scene of battles between government forces and Libyan-backed rebels, but has been calm for the last two years. Chad and Libya have restored diplomatic relations and agreed to settle their territorial dispute at the border by peaceful means.