Rescuers find debris believed from missing jet

The air sea rescue services in Palma said yesterday they believed they had found the remains of a small plane which disappeared on Wednesday over the Mediterranean between Valencia and Majorca with at least nine people on board. “We have found a side panel which coincides with that model and with its numbering,” a spokesman for air rescue service in Palma said. So far, there had been no trace of the missing passengers or crew and the chance of finding any survivors was low, he said. The debris was located between Spain's eastern coast, off the city of Castellon, and the Balearics. Seven or eight U.S. oil workers and two pilots were on the plane, which went missing on October 10 as it flew from Barcelona in Spain to Oran in Algeria, a major petroleum producer. Officials have said bad weather was the most likely cause of what appears to have been an accident. Air traffic controllers in Valencia said on Wednesday they had received a request from the plane to change route to avoid a storm shortly before it lost contact with the airport.