It was June 1, 2009, and this was Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris - a routine international flight.

In the early hours of that fateful morning, however, something dreadful occurred. Air France Flight 447 made its final radio transmission - and then all contact was lost.

The flight simply vanished. On the ground, French officials told desperate relatives: 'We wait, we pray, we will know more this afternoon.'

So began one of the most catastrophic and troubling air disasters of modern times, a crash that killed 228 people