Pilot locked out of cockpit before crash Germanwings
Germanwings crash in the French Alps Kills 150; Cockpit Voice Recorder is found.
A rescue helicopter of the French Alps near the site of the Airbus A320 crash Tuesday Credit Jean-Paul Pelissier Reuters.
PARIS A German plane reaction route Barcelona, Spain Düsseldorf, Germany plunged from the sky on Tuesday and slammed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard.
Helicopters and rescue personnel swarmed in the remote, rugged in southeastern France after the accident but found no sign of life Prime Minister Manuel Valls said none of the 144 passengers and six members of crew survived.
A subsidiary of Lufthansa, had no immediate explanation for the cause of the accident, which occurred just before 11 pm, at a news conference Tuesday evening, Heike Birlenbach, Vice President of Lufthansa authorities and leaders the airline, the budget carrier Germanwings, said, at this stage, we view this as an accident, adding that everything else was speculation.
As night fell in the area, officials said they had recovered one of the so-called black box voice recorder jet cockpit, which captures up to two hours of pilot conversations and other cockpit sounds, including alarms that would have said the plane came down a few hours later, they called the search for the evening.
The plane, an Airbus A320 carrying young people, vacationers and others, crashed after a descent eight minutes to 38,000 feet, the CEO of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann, said at a news conference.
Maps and chronology of what is known about the crash.
When controllers French air traffic lost contact with the plane at an Oct. 53 m was flying only 6,000 feet, said M. Winkelmann, and it crashed shortly after the land in this area dates back to an altitude over 6,000 feet.
Security personnel to Digne-les-Bains, a town near the crash site, described a scene of the wreck almost unimaginable, with metallic structures along the aircraft struck countless pieces.
The plane had completely disintegrated, Captain Benoit Zeisser, head of the operations center and information for local police to Digne-les-Bains, said Tuesday Nothing more; the accident area is huge.
As emergency crews combed department Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in France, Mr. Valls announced a judicial inquiry into the accident Many questions remain, including whether the pilots were in control of the camera for the descent and what could have caused a plane with an experienced pilot and solid safety record breaking down largely by clear weather and cloudless.
The passengers were Germans, Spaniards, Turks and Australians, and among them was a class of 16 students of the German school and two teachers who were returning from a study program near Barcelona Some of their relatives have gathered at the airport Dusseldorf, desperately waiting for news.
The CEO of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann said the Airbus A320 quickly lost altitude for more than eight minutes before crashing in the French Alps on Tuesday.
AP on publication date March 24, Photo Patrik 2015 STOLLARZ Agence France-Presse Getty Images Watch Video time.
This is the darkest day in the history of our city, said Bodo Klimpel, the mayor of Haltern am See in northwest Germany, where the 10th students went to school, he said: It is the worst thing imaginable.
As he spoke, people began to arrive outside Joseph König high school in the small town, carrying flowers and candles.
According Germanwings, at least 67 Germans were among the passengers, including two infants The airline was working to inform families before releasing more information about those on board.
But Barcelona's Liceu opera house said Tuesday that two singers were performing in Siegfried Wagner were on the baritone Oleg Bryjak and contralto Maria Radner Radner Ms. Traveling with her husband and her baby, said Joan Corbera a spokesman Liceu.
Two Delphi employees, an American car company, and at least one employee of Bayer, a German chemical company, were also among the passengers, according to new Spanish reports two Australians, a mother and her adult son of Victoria, died in the accident, said Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop.
Germanwings crash in the French Alps Kills 150; Cockpit Voice Recorder is found the New York Times, Berlin, accident, French Alps.