Interesting tidbits from Le Figaro, France’s “conservative” newspaper:
Sarkozy: “We don’t rule out any hypothesis.”
But just below that:
21h26 : La gendarmerie chargée de l’enquête. La section de recherche de la gendarmerie des transports aériens a été chargée ce soir de l’enquête sur la disparition de l’Airbus A330 d’Air France. Comme il s’agit à priori d’un acccident, c’est le tribunal de Bobigny qui a hérité de la compétence dans cette affaire, comme c’est l’habitude en cas d’accident aérien concernant l’aéroport de Roissy, où l’avion devait se poser, a ainsi indiqué le parquet. Si l’affaire avait eu une origine terroriste, c’est le parquet de Paris qui aurait été saisi.
Rapid translation:
Gendarmerie will investigate. The research section of the air transportation Gendarmerie has been chosen tonight to head up the investigation of the disappearance of Air France’s Airbus 330. Because it looks at first glance like an accident, the court of Bobigny has jurisdiction which is standard procedure for an aircraft which was to land at Roissey as this one was, according to the Justice Ministry.
If it had been a terrorist act which caused the disappearance, it would have been the court in Paris which would have had jurisdication.
So looks for the moment like the French are treating this like an accident despite what Sarkozy said.