A South African national on board the missing Air France plane was identified on Tuesday. Erich Heine was born in South Africa and worked for German steel giant Thyssenkrupp.

Company officials confirmed he was on board the flight when it went missing on Monday morning.

He was born and schooled in Pretoria but has been living in Brazil with his wife and three small children.

Heine's wife said in an interview published on Wednesday that she had not given up hope.

"I am tired of thinking. There is still no news, but I've seen on CNN that debris had been found. We are still hoping," said Alet Heine.

Heine was the father of three daughters, a six-year-old and four-year-old twins, Beeld newspaper reported.

His family has been living in Rio de Janeiro for the past year where he headed up the German steel giant ThyssenKrupp's unit in Brazil.

Former colleagues described him as a "brilliant engineer".

Heine began his career with steel company Iscor in 1991 and was quickly successful, first managing the Newcastle plant and then the Vanderbijlpark facility.

ArcelorMittal’s Sven Lunche said Heine did extremely well at the company.

“At 33-years-old he took over Newcastle works, which is out second biggest operation, four years later he ran the Vanderbijlpark unit ArcelorMittal South Africa which was one of the biggest steel plants in the southern hemisphere. To achieve that he’d certainly have to be determined, driven and a good engineer,” explained Lunche.

Collect a Can MD Funani Mojono worked with Heine at the steel manufacturer at the Vanderbijlpark facility.

“He obviously got very close to people and people liked him. He was just moving and he was amazing. For me its one of the biggest loss that I can’t imagine,” recounted Mojono.

Thyssenkrupp, his current employer, said he was an esteemed colleague who did outstanding work for the group.

Eyewitness News

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