Bristol schoolboy Alexander Bjoroy among Air France crash victims

Distraught relatives and friends of passengers of Air France flight AF447 arrive at the crisis centre at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris

Investigators scour the Atlantic after airliner plunges into the ocean during violent storm

An 11-year-old Bristol schoolboy was among the passengers on an Air France jet which crashed into the Atlantic yesterday on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, it emerged today.

Clifton College Preparatory School confirmed that one of its pupils, Alexander Bjoroy, who is British, was on the flight returning from a half-term break spent with his family, who are currently living in Brazil.

John Milne, the headmaster, said: "Alexander was a well liked and respected boarder who will be sorely missed by his fellow pupils and staff. Our deepest sympathies and condolences are with the family in Brazil at this time."

Alison Streatfield-James, a governor with four children of her own at the school, said: "It's a sombre mood at the school today. All the children were informed in assembly and prayers were said. It is a terrible piece of news to break."

Air France said that there were five Britons among the 216 passengers aboard flight AF447. They are thought to have included Arthur Coakley, a 61-year-old businessman from Whitby, North Yorkshire.

His wife, Patricia, last spoke to him as he waited in Rio for his flight to be called. The couple had been planning to go on holiday to Corfu on Friday. "I was elated. He was coming home and I was getting organised for our holiday and that was our last conversation," she said.

She only realised that he had been caught up in the tragedy when their son Patrick, 29, called in alarm to ask what flight he had been on, and she checked his itinerary on the internet.

"He was fabulous, he really was," she said, breaking down in tears. "He had a very dry sense of humour. We met and married within three months, we have been married 34 years."

She was highly critical of Air France, who she said had shown an appalling lack of support and consideration. "Air France have cut off all communications. We have no information. All we know is what everybody else sees on the television."

Graham Gardner, 52, from the Gourock in Renfrewshire, was also aboard the missing Air France flight. A sailor in the Merchant Navy all his adult life, he had been working in Brazil on a month-on, month-off contract for the last four years and had recently been promoted to Master of the Lochnagar, a pipe-laying vessel run by Subsea 7, an Aberdeen-based company.

His wife Joyce, 51, a human resources co-ordinator in Greenock, said: "Although we don't have children, he was very much a family man and loved playing with all the children in our extended family. He was just a big kid at heart.

"He's such a loving, caring and laid-back man. Nothing fazed him. He loved to walk, read science fiction novels and tend to his pride and joy, his tropical fish."http://www.timesonline.co.uk