A MAN from the region is feared to be one of the 228 people on board an airliner which has vanished off the coast of Brazil.

Arthur Coakley, from Whitby, North Yorkshire, had been due to take the previous flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris - but it had been full.

Instead he boarded Air France flight AF447 on Sunday evening. It disappeared about four hours into the flight after running into stormy weather.

Tonight Mr Coakley's wife Patricia said: "We're not giving up hope."

The father-of-three had been carrying out survey work on oil rigs and was returning to the UK after four weeks.

"I spoke to him last night after he checked in his luggage as he waited for his flight to be called," she added.

Mr Coakley is thought to be one of five Britons on the Airbus A330.

The passenger list also includes 61 French and 58 Brazilians among the 32 nationalities on board.

* For the full story see The Northern Echo tomorrow for full report.