Two Chinese companies said on Tuesday that seven employees were on board the Air France jetliner that vanished in the Atlantic.

Benxi Iron & Steel (Group) Co. Ltd. said four men and two women, including a senior manager, were taking the flight to Paris after business talks with representatives of Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd. and Brazil's CVRD, said Liu Dahong, vice director of publicity department of the company based in Liaoning Province, northeast China.

Liu said the company has been expecting the negotiation, which was significant to settle the volume of iron ore purchase to fuel its annual production goal of up to 13 million tonnes of iron or steel as of 2012.

The six staff reported before getting onboard the Airbus 330-200 that the negotiations were fruitful.

"We were praying for some miracles to happen," Liu said.

The company has set up a working team for the incident and is preparing to arrange for family members of the missing staff to fly to France or Brazil.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. also said an employee, working in the company's Brazil office, was missing after getting onboard the AF447 flight.

The company, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, was helping family members apply for visas to Brazil and France and will keep close contact with Air France and Chinese Embassy in Brazil.

Nine Chinese nationals, including an applicant for the status of investment immigrant in Brazil and a person whose identity remained unknown, were among the 228 people aboard the plane that disappeared in the Atlantic.

The flight was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members. The passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men, according to Air France.

Speculation continues about how the plane vanished.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2009)