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German Airbus crashes in French Alps with 150 dead, black box found
By Jean-Francois Rosnoblet
SEYNE-LES-ALPES, France Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:07pm EDT
(Reuters) - An Airbus operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed into a mountainside in the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 people on board including 16 schoolchildren.
Germanwings confirmed its flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf went down with 144 passengers and six crew on board.
One of the plane's black box recorders has been found at the crash site, about 100 km (65 miles) north of the Riviera city of Nice, and will be examined immediately, France's interior minister said.
In Washington, the White House said the crash did not appear to have been caused by a terrorist attack, while Lufthansa said it was working on the assumption that the tragedy had been an accident, adding that any other theory would be speculation.
Aerial photographs showed smoldering wreckage and a piece of the fuselage with six windows strewn across the steep mountainside cut by ravines.
"We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart, the bodies are in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage," Brice Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, told Reuters after flying over the wreckage in a helicopter.
Germanwings believed 67 Germans had been on the flight. Spain's deputy prime minister said 45 passengers had Spanish names. One Belgian was also aboard.
Also among the victims were 16 children and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany, a spokeswoman said.
French police at the crash site about 2,000 meters (6,000 feet) above sea level said no one survived and it would take days to recover the bodies due to difficult terrain, snow and incoming storms.
Police said search teams would stay overnight at altitude. "We are still searching. It's unlikely any bodies will be airlifted until Wednesday," regional police chief David Galtier told Reuters.
In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament: "A helicopter managed to land (by the crash site) and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors."
It was the first crash of a large passenger jet on French soil since the Concorde disaster just outside Paris nearly 15 years ago. The A320 is a workhorse of aviation fleets and one of the world’s most used passenger jets.
It has a good safety record. However, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network, Tuesday's crash was the third most deadly involving an A320. In 2007 a TAM Linhas Aereas A320 shot off a runway in Brazil, killing 187 people, while 162 people died when an Indonesia AirAsia jet went down in the Java Sea in December.
SHARP DESCENT
Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.
"The aircraft's contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers, ended at 10.53 am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed," Germanwings' Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told a news conference.
Winkelmann also said that routine maintenance of the aircraft was performed by Lufthansa on Monday.
Experts said that while the Airbus had descended rapidly, its rate of descent did not suggest it had simply fallen out of the sky.
France's DGAC aviation authority said air traffic controllers initiated distress procedures after they lost contact with the Airbus.
"The aircraft did not itself make a distress call but it was the combination of the loss of radio contact and the aircraft's descent which led the controller to implement the distress phase," a DGAC spokesman said.
In emergencies, pilots are trained to try to fly the aircraft as their first priority, then pay attention to navigation and only then communicate with the ground.
The aircraft came down in an alpine region known for skiing, hiking and rafting, but which is hard for rescue services to reach. The search and recovery effort based itself in a gymnasium in the village of Seyne-les-Alpes, which has a small private aerodrome nearby.
STORMS, SNOW, CLOUD
As helicopters and emergency vehicles assembled, the weather was reported to be closing in.
“There will be a lot of cloud cover this afternoon, with local storms, snow above 1,800 meters and relatively low clouds. That will not help the helicopters in their work,” an official from the local weather center told Reuters.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr, who planned to go to the crash site, spoke of a "dark day for Lufthansa".
"My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew," Lufthansa said on Twitter, citing Spohr.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would travel to the site on Wednesday. Germanwings and the Catalan regional government were preparing to take Spanish relatives there.
Family members arrived at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, many crying and with arms around each others’ shoulders, accompanied by police and airport staff.
In Llinars del Valles, the Spanish village that hosted the German schoolchildren, Mayor Marti Pujol said the whole village was distraught. "The families knew each other," he told Reuters. "The parents had been to see them off at 6 this morning."
King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain called off a state visit to France in a sign of mourning for the victims. They had arrived in Paris minutes after the crash happened.
In Washington, President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with Germany and Spain after what he called the "awful tragedy".
Airbus confirmed that the plane was 24 years old, having first been delivered to Lufthansa in 1991. It was powered by engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France's Safran.
(Additional reporting by Robert Hetz, John Irish, Nicolas Bertin, Gregory Blachier, Tim Hepher, Alwyn Scott, Elena Gyldenkerne, Robert-Jan Bartunek, Matthias Inverardi and Sabine Siebold; writing by Giles Elgood and David Stamp; editing by Mark John and Peter Millership)
‘No survivors expected’ as German jet crashes in French Alps with 150 on board
German carrier says its Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height, and continued losing altitude for eight minutes - and no distress was issued
The Germanwings Airbus A320 was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, citing aviation officials. Photo: SCMP Pictures
An Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote snowy area of the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board including 16 schoolchildren.
Germanwings confirmed its flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed with 144 passengers and six crew on board.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the black box would be looked at immediately and had been transferred to the Office of Investigations and Analysis.
The airline believed there were 67 Germans on the flight. Spain’s deputy prime minister said 45 passengers had Spanish names.
Among the victims were 16 children and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany, a spokeswoman said.
French police at the crash site said no one survived and it would take days to recover the bodies due to difficult terrain.
“It is going to take days to recover the victims, then the debris,” senior police officer Jean-Paul Bloy told reporters.
In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament: “A helicopter managed to land [by the crash site] and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors.”
It was the first crash of a large passenger jet on French soil since the Concorde disaster just outside Paris nearly 15 years ago. The A320 is a workhorse of worldwide aviation fleets. They are the world’s most used passenger jets and have a good though not unblemished safety record.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls (right) meets with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and others in his crisis cell in response to the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525. Photo: Twitter
Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.
“The aircraft’s contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers ended at 10.53am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed,” Germanwings’ Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told a news conference.
Winkelmann also said that routine maintenance of the aircraft was performed by Lufthansa on Monday.
Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa Chief Executive, reacts as he makes a statement at the Frankfurt airport. Photo: Reuters
France’s DGAC aviation authority said air traffic controllers initiated distress procedures after they lost contact with the Airbus, which did not issue a distress call.
The accident happened in an alpine region known for skiing, hiking and rafting, but which is hard for rescue services to reach.
The search and rescue effort based itself in a gymnasium in the village of Seyne-les-Alpes, which has a small private aerodrome nearby.
Transport Minister Alain Vidalies told local media: “This is a zone covered in snow, inaccessible to vehicles but which helicopters will be able to fly over.”
Helicopters of the French Air Force and civil security services arrive for rescue operations in Seyne, south-eastern France. Photo: AFP
But as helicopters and emergency vehicles assembled, the weather was reported to be closing in.
“There will be a lot of cloud cover this afternoon, with local storms, snow above 1,800 metres and relatively low clouds. That will not help the helicopters in their work,” an official from the local weather centre told Reuters.
“Dark Day”
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr, who planned to go to the crash site, spoke of a “dark day for Lufthansa”.
“My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew,” Lufthansa said on Twitter, citing Spohr.
French aviation authorities said the airliner crashed near the town of Barcelonnette about 100 kilometres north of the French Riviera city of Nice, not far from the Italian border.
An arrivals board shows flight 4U 9525 without a status at the airport in Dusseldorf. Photo: AP
French and German accident investigators were heading for the crash site in Meolans-Revel, a remote and sparsely inhabited commune.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would travel there on Wednesday.
Family members arrived at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, many crying and with arms around each others’ shoulders, accompanied by police and airport staff.
Airbus confirmed that the plane was 24 years old, having first been delivered to Germanwings parent Lufthansa in 1991.
It was powered by engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran.
Hong Kong Immigration Department said it so far had not received calls for assistance.
It had contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ commissioner office in Hong Kong, China’s embassy in Spain and its consulate generals in Frankfurt and Marseille, as well as the airline.
Hongkongers in need of assistance can call the department’s hotline at +852 1868.
Unofficial website tracking data suggested the aircraft made a sharp descent from its cruising height of 35,000 feet. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Madrid (AFP) - Flags flew at half-mast and workplaces fell silent Wednesday as Spain grieved the 150 people, including at least 51 Spaniards, killed in a plane crash in the French Alps.
Mourners stood still for a minute's silence at noon at both houses of parliament in Madrid, in theatres, on football fields and elsewhere, after the government declared three days of mourning.
Barcelona's El Prat airport, where the Germanwings flight took off on Tuesday and which was bedecked with giant wreaths, came to a halt for a minute.
"The atmosphere is tense. The city is sad," 58-year-old Maria Antonia Roig said after dropping her son off to catch a flight.
"Everyone knows someone who knows a victim. It has hit very close to home."
Among the flags at half-mast across Spain were those atop Barcelona's opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
Two star opera singers who had just performed there in Richard Wagner's "Siegfried" died in the crash.
One of them, German contralto Maria Radner, 33, was killed along with her baby and husband, the Liceu theatre said.
The Liceu and the Teatro Real opera house in Madrid each held a minute's silence at noon.
FC Barcelona said its hockey and handball teams wore black armbands in matches Tuesday and the basketball team would do likewise on Wednesday.
Real Madrid footballers also held a minute's silence before training on Wednesday, the club said.
- Counting the dead -
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy flew to France to visit the area of the crash site in a remote area of the French Alps.
French leaders said no-one survived the crash of the Airbus A320 operated by Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Germanwings.
"We want to join all of them in their pain," Rajoy said of the victims' loved ones, in a speech alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
"We know that is not easy because what has happened is the worst thing that can befall a human being," he added.
"We want to help them by any means available to us. We want to identify all the victims and repatriate them in the best possible conditions."
Rajoy's government said 51 Spanish victims had so far been identified as being on the flight.
Officers were taking genetic samples from dozens of relatives to help identify the dead, said Xavier Porcuna, a spokesman for the Catalan police.
"Within 24 hours we will be able to start sending the genetic profiles to the French authorities," he said.
There was still no word on the cause of the crash by Wednesday afternoon. Lufthansa said Tuesday it was working on the assumption that it was an accident.
- Schoolchildren in shock -
A big black ribbon filled the front page of Catalan newspaper ARA and the same symbol appeared on Spanish public television and various official Twitter accounts.
Germanwings said there were at least 72 Germans on board the flight, among them 16 school pupils and two teachers who had been in Spain for an educational exchange.
The school visited by the German pupils in the Catalan town of Llinars del Valles held a private ceremony for the victims.
"It's very sad... A shock," one pupil, Georgina Diaz, told AFP on Tuesday.
Spain was sending 11 psychologists to France to attend to any victims' relatives who may travel to the area of the crash, the government said.
It was ready to transport victims' families there and was waiting for instructions from French authorities.
"The families are in a shocking situation, so the most important thing is to... give them all the help that need," said Spain's junior infrastructure minister, Julio Gomez Pomar.
Leaders see horror of French Alps crash as probe gathers pace
AFP
March 26, 2015, 4:54 am
Seyne-les-Alpes (France) (AFP) - Investigators on Wednesday made the first breakthrough in the probe into the crash of an airliner in the French Alps, as President Francois Hollande vowed everything would be done to explain the tragedy that killed 150 people.
Officials from the BEA crash investigation agency said they had extracted "usable data" from one of the Germanwings Airbus A320's two "black boxes" found among the debris, with recordings from the cockpit, but still had no explanation for the mysterious crash.
Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew over the crash site to see the devastation for themselves before meeting rescue workers outside the crisis centre set up on Tuesday after the worst crash in France in four decades.
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also visited the centre to be briefed on the gruelling rescue operation in difficult mountain terrain where Flight 4U9525 crashed early Tuesday, scattering debris over a wide area.
Buffeted by strong mountain winds, the ashen-faced leaders spent several minutes inspecting a line-up of blue-uniformed rescue workers, chatting intently with the help of interpreters.
"My deepest sympathies with the families and all my thanks for the friendship of the people of this region and in France," wrote Merkel in a book of condolence.
Grieving relatives were also gathering near the crash site, where a counselling unit has been established.
The French president told reporters: "We have to understand what happened. We owe it to the families and the countries concerned by the drama."
"All light will be shed" on the mystery, he vowed.
"What has happened is the worst thing that can befall a human being," said Rajoy.
Meanwhile, French investigation agency BEA released photos of the mangled black box, its metal casing torn and twisted by the violence of the impact.
BEA head Remi Jouty told reporters he had "not the slightest explanation" for the crash at this stage, although he revealed the plane was still flying when it smashed into the mountainside and did not explode mid-air.
Hollande said the casing of a second black box, which records technical flight data, had been found but not the device itself.
Authorities are still baffled as to why the plane suddenly began a fatal eight-minute descent shortly after reaching cruising altitude on its route between Barcelona and Duesseldorf.
No distress signal was sent and the crew failed to respond to desperate attempts at contact from ground control.
"It is inexplicable," Lufthansa chief Carsten Spohr said in Frankfurt.
"The plane was in perfect condition and the two pilots were experienced."
Officials in Spain said at least 49 Spaniards had been killed in the accident, and Germanwings said at least 72 Germans were dead.
- 'Incredible', 'shocking' scene -
A mountain guide who got near the crash site -- a steep and broken landscape littered with the shattered pieces of Flight 4U9525 -- said he was unable to make out recognisable body parts.
"It's incredible. An Airbus is enormous. When you arrive and there's nothing there ... it's very shocking," said the guide, who did not wish to be identified.
The plane was carrying six crew and 144 passengers, including 16 German teenagers returning home from a school trip.
Bereaved pupils from their high school in the small German town of Haltern wept and hugged near a makeshift memorial of candles as they pulled together to share the pain of losing their friends.
"This is certainly the darkest day in the history of our city," said a tearful Bodo Klimpel, the town's mayor. "It is the worst thing you can imagine."
"Yesterday we were many, today we are alone," read a hand-painted sign at the school, decorated with 16 crosses -- one for each of the victims, most around 15 years old.
Compounding the tragedy, it emerged that those killed had won the trip in a lottery of their classmates, reported local daily the Halterner Zeitung in its online edition.
Also on board were opera singers Oleg Bryjak, 54, and Maria Radner, 33, flying to their home city of Duesseldorf.
Radner was travelling with her husband and baby, one of two infants on board the plane.
In Spain, a minute's silence was observed at noon around the country.
Germanwings, the growing low-cost subsidiary of the prestigious Lufthansa carrier, had an unblemished safety record.
Weather did not appear to be a factor in the crash, with conditions calm at the time.
It was the deadliest air crash on the French mainland since 1974 when a Turkish Airlines plane crashed, killing 346 people.
Victims were also confirmed from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Denmark, Holland, Israel, Japan, Mexico and the United States, according to officials.
Casing of second black box found but not box itself: Hollande
AFP
March 26, 2015, 3:25 am
Seyne-les-Alpes (France) (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday the casing for the second black box from the Germanwings Airbus crash had been found in the French Alps, but not the box itself.
"We're looking for a second black box. Its casing has been found, but not yet, unfortunately, the box itself," he said at a news conference near the crash site, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Paris (AFP) - Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 that crashed with no survivors in the French Alps on Tuesday was carrying 144 passengers and six crew from more than a dozen countries.
Most of those on board were Spanish or German but others came from as far afield as Australia and Colombia.
Authorities are in the process of confirming the nationalities of the victims, a task complicated by a number of travellers with dual nationality which might explain the discrepancy in some of the figures.
Here is what is known of the victims:
Germany
Germanwings confirmed that at least 72 Germans were on board, including two babies and 16 teenage school pupils and their two female teachers from the Joseph Koenig Gymnasium in Haltern am See, north of Duesseldorf.
The group had been on a week-long exchange trip in Llinars del Valles near Barcelona, paying a reciprocal visit after Spanish students came to Haltern in December.
Kazakh-German opera singer Oleg Bryjak, 54, who had just performed the character Alberich in Richard Wagner's "Siegfried" at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu was also among the dead.
Spain
At least 49 Spaniards died, junior security minister Francisco Martinez told a news conference. Germanwings executive Thomas Winkelmann, however, said the latest estimate was that 35 passengers were Spanish.
Reports in Spain and Britain named one victim as Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio, 37, and her baby. Originally from Jaca in the Spanish Pyrenees but living in Rochdale near Manchester in Britain, Lopez-Belio had been attending a relative's funeral in Spain.
Other victims, according to sources and reports, included a young married couple as well as numerous local Catalan business figures, including four members of the same family.
Other Europeans
At least three British nationals died, according to British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
One Belgian, one Dutch and one Dane have also been confirmed by the airline or local authorities.
United States
Germanwings said two Americans were on board, while French Prime Minister Manuel Valls put the number at one earlier in the day.
South Americans
Two Argentines were on board, according to Germanwings. A third, who lives in Paraguay, also died, according to his brother.
Colombians Maria del Pilar Tejada and Luis Eduardo Medrano died, the Colombian foreign ministry said. Germanwings said only there was only one Colombian victim.
Two Venezuelans were also on board, according to the airline.
Australia
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said two Australians were on board.
Japan
The Japanese foreign ministry said two Japanese men were on the passenger list -- Satoshi Nagata, who was in his 60s and Junichi Sato, in his 40s. Both men lived in Duesseldorf. "It is very likely that they were on board," a ministry official told AFP in Tokyo.
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's foreign ministry confirmed that three of its citizens -- Erbol and Adil Imankulov and Aizhan Isengaliyeva -- were among the dead. The ministry said that it was trying to confirm whether a fourth passenger, Yelena Bles, held Kazakh citizenship following information from Germany authorities.
Others
Two Iranians and one Israeli were on the flight, according to Germanwings.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday that other countries with nationals on the Barcelona-Duesseldorf flight came from Morocco and Mexico.
The 'lucky ones'
A Swedish third division football team booked on the flight changed their booking at the last minute after deciding to change their route home.
Upon arrival at Barcelona airport, the Dalkurd FF team from Borlaenge, in central Sweden, decided the stopover in Duesseldorf would be too long and re-booked themselves onto three other flights flying via Zurich and Munich.
Sporting director Adil Kizil said: "We were supposed to be on that plane."
A plane operated by budget carrier Germanwings, carrying 144 passengers and six crew, crashed over the French Alps on Tuesday, killing everyone on board.
Two Australians, Victorian woman Carol Friday, 68, and her son Greig, 29, were among those who died when flight 4U 9525 went down in south-eastern France, about 10:30am local time, while en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf in Germany.
Mother and son, Carol and Grieg Friday, were among the 150 people killed in French Alps plane crash. Photo: Supplied
While investigations into the cause of the crash are continuing, here is what we know so far.
The crash site
The debris has been found in a rugged area near the town of Le Vernet in the French Alps, about 100 kilometres from the coastal city of Nice
Teams scouring the debris have had to be winched down by helicopters, which cannot land due to the terrain
Local French MP Christophe Castaner, who flew over the site, said on Twitter: "Horrendous images in this mountain scenery. Nothing is left but debris and bodies. A horror - the plane is totally destroyed."
The area saw another air disaster just over 50 years ago in 1953, when an Air France plane to Vietnam crashed near where flight 4U 9525 came down. The plane clipped a mountain and crashed into a rocky crevice just before midnight, killing 42 people on board.
The plane
French civil aviation authorities said they lost contact with the plane, an Airbus 320, at 10:30am
Transponder data from the plane was last received by flightradar24 at 10:41am, when it was at an altitude of 6,800 feet
Over the previous 10 minutes it descended from an altitude of 38,000 feet, according to flightdata24
No mayday call was sent. Air traffic control declared the plane was in distress after they could not contact the crew
An aerial view of the crash site. Source: AAP
Officials say the plane was 'obliterated'. Source: AAP
The airline
Germanwings is a low-cost airline entirely owned by Germany's Lufthansa, Europe's largest airline
Founded in 2002, it has an excellent safety record
It was set up as a direct competitor to Ryanair and easyJet and flies to 117 destinations in 31 countries
Aircraft are maintained by LufthansaTechnik, a respected maintenance provider
The airline's managing director said routine maintenance of the aircraft had been carried out the day
Maria Radner performs during a dress rehearsal for Richard Wagner's opera "Goetterdaemmerung" which is part of the Salzburg Easter Festival in Salzburg, Austria. A Spanish opera house said Tuesday, March 24, 2015 German contralto Maria Radner along with her husband and baby, were among the 150 victims of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps. Source: AAP
The passengers
Ms Friday and her son were on holiday in Europe, where Mr Friday was about to begin a year teaching English. Their family described them as "extraordinary and exceptional people who were loved by many, who they loved in return".
It is believed 72 German and at least 35 Spanish nationals were on board the flight, including two babies
At least three British nationals were also on board, Britain's foreign secretary Philip Hammond confirmed. He could not rule out the possibility that there were more involved.
Sixteen children and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See, in north-west Germany, were on board
The mayor of Llinars de Valles, a town north of Barcelona, said pupils were in shock at a local high school where the 16 had just attended an exchange program
Haltern am See mayor Bodo Klimpel called it "the darkest day in the town's history"
Two opera singers were also among those killed: bass-baritone Oleg Bryjak, 54, and contralto Maria Radner, 33, were flying home after starring in Richard Wagner's opera "Siegfried" at Barcelona's opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu
The theatre said Radner was travelling with her husband and baby
Paris (AFP) - The cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of the Germanwings plane that crashed killing all 150 people aboard has been damaged and has been taken to Paris for analysis, a source close to the inquiry said Wednesday.
"The black box that was found is the CVR," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) "was damaged. It has been transferred to Paris this morning."
A second so-called black box, in this case recording flight data, has yet to be found on the mountain in the French Alps where the Airbus A320 went down Tuesday.
Photos issued by the BEA crash investigation office showed the black box -- in fact coloured orange -- in a badly mangled state, its metal casing twisted and ripped by the force of the crash.
Officials acknowledge it is badly damaged but say they still expect to retrieve some data from it, although it may take some time.
They hope it will offer clues as to why the plane plunged for eight minutes out of a clear sky in an accident that Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa has described as "inexplicable".
One of the two pilots on the doomed Germanwings flight was apparently locked out of the cockpit before the plane crashed in the French Alps.
Cockpit recordings recovered from the crash site indicated one of the seats was pushed back and the door opened and closed, followed by the sound of knocking, said a source close to the investigation.
The source said "there was no more conversation from that point until the crash".
An alarm indicating the proximity of the ground could be heard before the impact, which killed all 150 people on board.
The pilots had been speaking normally and in German at the start of Flight 4U9525. The source could not say if it was the captain or the first officer who had left the cockpit.
The cockpit voice recorder was found late on Tuesday, several hours after the crash of the budget flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, and the data analysed on Wednesday afternoon.
The Airbus A320 suddenly began a fatal eight-minute descent shortly after reaching cruising altitude.
No distress signal was sent and the crew failed to respond to desperate attempts at contact from ground control.
Small town mourns 18 young lives lost in Germanwings crash
Date March 26, 2015 - 7:15AM
Oliver Barth
Students at the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school mourn their friends who were killed in the Germanwings crash. Photo: Getty
Haltern am See: The deaths of 16 teenage students and two young teachers in the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps left the lakeside town of Haltern am See in a state of shock, with the German nation sharing in their mourning and grief.
A tranquil and tidy town of 37,000 thatseemed to be a haven from the world's dangers, Haltern am See came to a halt after news that 14 girls, two boys and two teachers on a Spanish language exchange program were not coming home.
Ulrich Wessel, principal of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school, the day after 16 students and two teachers from the school were among passengers who were killed on Germanwings flight 4U9525. Photo: Getty
"On Tuesday last week we sent off 16 happy, young people with two happy, young teachers on a journey," said Ulrich Wessel, headmaster of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school.
"It was meant to be a journey full of joy, a school exchange that we've been doing for six years. It ended in tragedy," added Mr Wessel. "Our school will never be the same again".
French investigators searched for clues as to why the German Airbus flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf ploughed into an Alpine mountainside, killing all 150 on board.
In front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school: 16 students and two teachers from the school were lost in the Germanwings crash. Photo: Getty
The 16 German students, all about 15 years old, had started learning Spanish at the start of the school year and were picked from 40 applicants to attend the popular language exchange programme. A group of Spanish students spent a week in Haltern in December.
"Someone asked me how many we have at our school. Without thinking, I answered 1,283. There are actually 16 fewer now," said Mr Wessel, who was close to tears. "It's all so horrible that I can hardly find words".
In all, 72 Germans were killed in the crash, the first major air passenger disaster on French soil since the 2000 Concorde accident just outside Paris. Spanish officials said 49 Spaniards were among the victims.
Candles outside the Josef-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in Haltern am See. Photo: KIRSTEN NEUMANN
French President Francois Hollande was joined by Germany's Angela Merkel and Spain's Mariano Rajoy to pay their respects to the victims and to meet search teams at their base in the nearby village of Seyne-les-Alpes later on Wednesday.
"It feels good that in a difficult hour like this that we're standing so closely together", Ms Merkel said. "Dear Francois, I'd like to say a heartfelt 'thank you' in the name of millions of Germans who appreciate this German-Franco friendship".
There was a pall hanging over the closely knit town north of former mining centres of Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen. The despair was amplified by heavy low-lying clouds on a chilly spring day.
Students at mass in Llinars del Valles, the town where German exchange students lost in the Germanwings crash studied Spanish. Photo: Reuters
Crowds of students, some sobbing and many dressed in black, gathered in front of their high school to mourn. Some placed flowers on the steps next to the hundreds of candles in red glass left by mourners at the three-storey cement building.
"It's a tragedy, a tragedy all over Haltern", said student Lisa Boening. "Haltern is so small. Friends came to me yesterday in tears and I was trying to just be there for them. It's hard."
Local residents huddled among themselves, talking quietly and trying to avoid the journalists from across Germany and overseas who had descended on their once little-known town.
A memorial in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium secondary school in Haltern am See. Photo: Getty
"I haven't been able to sleep, not at all, because it really gets to me," said Haltern resident Macky Nowak. "I just cried".
Former Germany soccer player Christoph Metzelder, who grew up here before playing for Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, said his home town would never be the same.
"It's a national tragedy," he told Die Welt newspaper. "The students and the teachers from Haltern am See have become the symbol of this disaster. Haltern am See has lost its innocence. Before it was a fantastic little city. Now there's only sorrow."
North Rhine-Westphalia's Education Minister Sylvia Loehrmann added: "This is a pain that no one, not even the greatest power on earth, can stop. We can only try to accompany."
Schools across the state will hold a moment of silence for the victims on Thursday and flags across Germany were lowered to half mast. The Germany soccer team said they will wear black arm bands in their match against Australia to mourn the victims.
The headmaster said the two teachers were also young - one got married last year in October and the other was engaged.
"From one minute to the next, their life's plans were gone - they'll leave a big hole at our school," Wessel said. "It's a deep wound to lose 16 children and two teachers that will take long to heal and will leave deep scars."
Across Germany, which takes pride in a safe and efficient transport system, the sorrow was exacerbated by the loss of so many of Haltern's bright youngsters bound for university.
Tiny Schroers, a 65-year-old flying home to Duesseldorf after celebrating her grandson's birthday in Berlin, said it felt strange to travel by plane: "I can't help thinking about all those young people who died."
The sorrow could also be felt at Duesseldorf airport, where people lit candles and placed flowers against a metal support and pinned up messages in German, English and Spanish.
"My thoughts are with all the victims and relatives of this terrible air disaster," reads one message on black paper pinned to a pillar. "Keep strong, we're crying with you," read another.
A police officer stands next to the apartment believed to belong to Germanwings co-pilot Lubitz in Dusseldorf. Photo: Reuters
Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have hidden evidence of an illness from his employers, including having been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain, prosecutors said on Friday.
The evidence came from the search of Lubitz’s homes in two German cities for an explanation of why he crashed the Airbus A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
Prosecutor’s spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a written statement that torn-up sick notes for the day of the crash “support the current preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues.”
Such sick notes from doctors excusing employees from work are common in Germany and issued even for minor illnesses. Herrenbrueck didn’t reveal details of what illness Lubitz was suffering from.
Herrenbrueck said other medical documents found indicated “an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment,” but that no suicide note was found. He added there was no indication of any political or religious motivation for Lubitz’s actions.
The Germanwings co-pilot said to have deliberately crashed an Airbus with 149 others aboard into the French Alps was still getting assistance from doctors after a bout of severe depression, German daily Bild reported today.
Andreas Lubitz, 27, sought psychiatric help for “a bout of heavy depression” in 2009 and was still receiving "regular private medical" treatment, the newspaper said, quoting documents from Germany’s air transport regulator LBA.
Andreas Lubitz runs the Airportrace half marathon in Hamburg in a 2009 file photo. Photo: Reuters
Bild added that Germanwings’ parent company Lufthansa had transmitted this information to the LBA. German police had searched the home and apartment of Lubitz for clues as to why he locked out the captain from the cockpit, then wordlessly and “deliberately” slammed the Airbus into a mountain in France.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said Lubitz suspended his pilot training, which began in 2008, “for a certain period”. The Bild report said that during the period of his training setback, Lubitz had suffered “depressions and anxiety attacks”.
Then Lubitz continued his training and qualified to fly the Airbus A320 in 2013. The second-in-command had passed all psychological tests required for training and “he was 100-per cent airworthy”, said Spohr.
Lubitz had 630 hours of flight time by the day of the crash.
The pilot’s records were due to be examined by experts in Germany today before being handed to French investigators, the German newspaper reported.
Investigators search Andreas Lubitz's home. Photo: Xinhua
In a chilling account of the final minutes of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, lead prosecutor Brice Robin said that Lubitz initiated the plane’s plunge into the French Alps while alone at the controls.
An analysis of transponder data by Flightradar24, a flight tracking service, showed that the autopilot was reset to take the plane from 38,000 feet to just 100 feet.
Screams were heard from the cabin in the final moments before the plane slammed into the mountain, according to the plane’s cockpit voice recorder retrieved from the scattered debris on the Alps.
Lubitz, courteous in the first part of the trip, became “curt” when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing, Robin said.
For the eight minutes after he began the descent, Lubitz was apparently calm and silent, breathing normally and showing no sign of panic.
“He does not say a single word. Total silence,” Robin said. “The co-pilot was alone at the controls” as the pilot was believed to have gone to the toilet.
Despite the captain's increasingly furious attempts to re-enter the cockpit, banging on the door, Lubitz deliberately refused to open the door. The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive, but the override code known to the crew does not go into effect if the person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry.
German daily Bild, citing security sources, said today that the captain used an axe to try and force his way back in. Officials have not yet confirmed this.
Instrument alarms went off, but no distress call ever went out from the cockpit, and the control tower’s pleas for a response went unanswered. Robin said the passengers only realised the horror awaiting them at the very last moment.
“The victims realised just at the last moment,” Robin said. “We can hear them screaming.” They were all killed instantly.
Lubitz appeared to “show a desire to want to destroy” the plane, Robin told reporters after his team analysed the Airbus A320’s cockpit voice recorder.
The French prosecutor downplayed the likelihood that Lubitz accidentally downed the plane with an involuntary turn of the descent button.
“If you passed out and leaned over on it, it would only go a quarter-way and do nothing,” Robin said, adding Lubitz, who had worked for Lufthansa since 2013, had set the controls to “accelerate the plane’s descent”.
Police raided Lubitz’s family home in the town of Montabaur, about 100 kilometres northwest of Frankfurt, as well as his flat in Dusseldorf yesterday. A prosecutor said in a statement that police were focused on “finding and securing personal documents to obtain evidence of a possible motive”.
German police officers carry a computer out of a house believed to belong to the parents of Andreas Lubitz in Montabaur. Photo: Reuters
Robin avoided describing the crash as a suicide. “Usually, when someone commits suicide, he is alone,” he said. “When you are responsible for 150 people at the back, I don’t necessarily call that a suicide.”
Lubitz’s Facebook page, deleted Tuesday, showed a smiling man in a dark brown jacket posing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was restored as an “In Memory” site following the French prosecutor’s news conference.
French, German and US officials said there was no indication of terrorism. The prosecutor did not elabourate on why investigators do not suspect a political motive; instead they’re focusing on the co-pilot’s “personal, family and professional environment” to try to determine why he did it.
It prompted airlines to review their cockpit policies, many announcing they will now require two crew members in the cockpit at all times.
Leaders of the two nations where most of the passengers hailed from expressed shock and grief at the latest developments.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the revelation added an “absolutely unimaginable dimension” to Tuesday’s tragedy.
Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he was “deeply shaken” by the news and sent his “heartfelt affection” to the victims’ families, dozens of whom had arrived near the crash site.
French gendarmes and investigators work amongst the debris of the Airbus A320. Photo: Reuters
Many victims’ relatives visited the Alpine clearing where French authorities set up a viewing tent for family members to look toward the site of the crash, so steep and treacherous that it can only be reached by a long journey on foot or rappelling from a helicopter.
Remains found scattered across the scree-covered slopes were being taken by helicopter to nearby Seyne-les-Alpes.
Lubitz’s family was in France but was being kept separate from the other families, Robin said.
The families were also giving DNA samples to start the process of identifying the remains of the victims, at least 50 of whom were Spaniards and at least 75 Germans. The dead included two babies.
In the first industry responses to the disaster, Canada ordered its airlines to have two people in cockpits at all times, effective immediately.
Germany’s aviation association BDL announced plans Thursday to introduce a two-person cockpit rule, while British low-cost carrier easyJet, Scandinavia’s Norwegian Air Shuttle and Icelandair all made similar announcements.
Many US airlines already have such a policy in place.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations world aviation body, called for regular mental and physical check-ups for pilots.
Julian Drape, AAP Europe Correspondent
March 28, 2015, 9:11 am
Grieving relatives of the two Australians killed when a Germanwings Airbus was flown into a mountain in the French Alps are preparing for an "unbearably" sad day when they visit the crash site early next week.
Relatives of Carol Friday, 68, and her 29-year-old son Greig, both from Melbourne, are en route to Germany this weekend.
They're then expected to fly to France on Monday and travel by road to Seyne-les-Alpes near the crash site.
"We are expecting the family to visit the site early next week, probably on Monday," said Australia's ambassador in Paris, Stephen Brady.
"We hope that provides a small degree of solace."
Carol Friday's brother, Mal Coram, will represent the family in Seyne along with his two daughters, Georgie and Pippa. The Melbourne nurse's husband, Dave, and the couple's daughter, Alex, aren't travelling to France.
The Corams will pay their respects at a newly erected memorial for the victims.
Fairfax Media has reported they'll leave tributes from other family and friends including poems, photos and reminders of the Australian bush that Carol and Greig loved.
"I think that's a very beautiful gesture," Mr Brady said on Friday.
"We'll do everything we can to make an unbearable day a little easier for them."
Australia's consul-general from Paris will be on hand to help the relatives in southern France.
Specialists are combing the wreckage for body parts and DNA samples that will enable them to identify the 150 people who died in Tuesday's crash that was apparently deliberately initiated by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.
Prosecutors have revealed the German hid a serious illness from the airline amid reports he was severely depressed.
Mr Brady on Friday thanked the French government for its handling of the disaster.
"I have nothing but praise for the swiftness and comprehensiveness of the French government's response," the ambassador said.
"Despite not suffering any losses themselves the French have not stinted in providing a superb response to this tragic event."
France was rocked by the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in January and is now coping with what appears to be one of Europe's worst peacetime massacres since World War II.
"It's been two human tragedies of immense scale and consequence," Mr Brady said from Paris.
"There's a resolve in government circles to ensure that the French state is able to cope with any crisis.
"But the atmosphere is sombre. It's deeply reflective."
Germany and Spain bore the brunt of the tragedy with 75 Germans dead and at least 50 Spaniards on board the Barcelona to Duesseldorf flight 4U9525.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that "everything is pointing towards an act that we can't describe: criminal, crazy, suicidal."
Germanwings offers families initial aid of 50,000 euros
AFP
March 28, 2015, 7:25 am
Berlin (AFP) - Germanwings has offered the families of the victims of the French Alps air disaster "up to 50,000 euros ($54,806) per passenger" towards their immediate costs, a spokesman said Friday.
The assistance, which the families would not be required to pay back, was separate from the compensation that the airline will likely have to pay over the disaster, a Germanwings spokesman told AFP, confirming a report by Tagesspiegel daily.
Tagesspiegel quoted a specialist in aviation law, Holger Hopperdietzelm, as saying Lufthansa, Germanwings' parent company, faced a compensation bill ranging from several tens of thousands of euros to several hundreds of thousands of euros per victim.
Elmar Giemulla, a professor of aviation law at the Technical University of Berlin, told the Rheinische Post paper however she expected Europe's biggest airline to pay a smaller amount, perhaps between 10 and 30 million euros.
The liability of airlines in accidents was decided at a 1999 convention in Montreal, which settled on a cap of 143,000 euros per victim.
The cap, which airlines "rarely bring up" can however be exceeded "in practise", the legal manager of one airline told AFP.
Insurance specialists told AFP the fact that the co-pilot apparently deliberately crashed the jet into the mountainside would not affect the issue of compensation.
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), a subsidiary of German insurance giant Allianz that specialises in risk management of large corporates, is Germanwings' lead insurer.
The fact that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz hid a serious illness from his bosses, as revealed by German prosecutors Friday, did "not bring the exclusion clause in Lufthansa's insurance policy into play", the legal manager who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said.
According to German media reports Lubitz was suffering from depression.
Crash co-pilot was a psychiatric patient and planned a big gesture, girlfriend tells reporter
Former girlfriend says health troubles ended Andreas Lubitz's hope of dream Lufthansa job
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz running a half marathon in Hamburg in this file image from September 2009. Photo: Reuters
The Germanwings co-pilot who crashed his Airbus in the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, told his former girlfriend that "one day everyone will know my name", according to a German newspaper.
In an interview, the flight attendant, 26, known as Maria W, told Bild that when she heard about the crash she recalled Andreas Lubitz telling her last year: "One day I'm going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember."
French investigators confer outside a mobile forensic lab near the crash site of a Germanwings Airbus A320 in the French Alps. Photo: Reuters
The black box voice recorder indicated that Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out of the cockpit on Tuesday and deliberately flew Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside, French officials said, in what appeared to have been a case of suicide and mass killing.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said all the signs were "pointing towards an act that we can't describe: criminal, crazy, suicidal".
German prosecutors said searches of Lubitz's homes had uncovered "medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment", including "torn-up and current sick leave notes … one covering the day of the crash".
Germanwings airplanes on the ground at Dusseldorf airport on Friday. Photo: Reuters
Bild, said Maria W, who was "very shocked", flew with Lubitz on European flights for five months last year, during which time they are believed to have been romantically involved.
If Lubitz did deliberately crash the plane, "it is because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa, as captain and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible", she told Bild.
The pair separated "because it became increasingly clear that he had a problem", she told Bild. At night he would wake up and scream "we're going down" and often had nightmares, she said.
Bild earlier reported Lubitz sought psychiatric help for "a bout of serious depression" in 2009 and was still getting assistance from doctors, quoting documents from Germany's air transport regulator.
Lubitz lived with his parents in his home town of Montabaur in the Rhineland, and had a flat in Dusseldorf, the city where the aircraft had been headed.
Alone in the cockpit in control of Germanwings Flight 9525, Andreas Lubitz was harbouring a deadly secret.
Ignoring instructions from his doctor, who certified him unfit to fly on the day the plane crashed into the French Alps, the 27-year-old appears to have single-mindedly set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the worst air disaster for the low-cost airline and its parent Lufthansa, killing all 150 people on board.
Strict medical privacy laws mean the companies were oblivious to the potential dangers lurking in Lubitz's mind as the first officer took the plane into a steep descent over the region that members of his local gliding club, where he developed his passion for flying, had toured in the past.
Confidentiality regulations, designed to protect medical data and encourage people to consult doctors without fear of repercussion, put the onus on patients to disclose potentially hazardous diagnoses to authorities and their employers.
"The medical secrecy rules are centuries old and touch the core of the medical profession," said René Steinhaeuser, an attorney at Wigge lawyers in Hamburg who specialises in medical law. "Without that, the relationship between physician and patient, and thus the medical system as a whole, wouldn't work."
The case is sparking debate over how practices may be changed as a result of the tragedy. It also raises questions about Lubitz's period of absence from flying school that delayed his qualification to fly.
Lubitz, who started his pilot training in 2008, took leave for "several months" at one point.
Lubitz suffered from a psychosomatic condition and was being treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists, according to a person familiar with the investigation who declined to be identified because the information isn't public.
He sought treatment for vision problems that may have put an end to his career as a pilot, The New York Times reported.
Neither police nor prosecutors have publicly commented on the report. Psychosomatic disorders are physical diseases that are thought to have mental reasons, like stress and anxiety.
Prosecutors in Dusseldorf found a sick note at Lubitz's home suggesting he was unfit to fly on the day of the crash, and said he may have concealed his illness intentionally.
Lubitz had appointments at the University Hospital in Dusseldorf in February and on March 10 for "diagnostic clarifications", the hospital said on Friday.
There are two main exceptions under which a doctor may break the oath of confidentiality, said Steinhaeuser.
One is when a patient demonstrates symptoms of epidemic diseases, like cholera or typhus, and the other is when there is a suspicion the patient may be planning to commit a serious crime. There are no special rules that compel a doctor to alert authorities if a pilot is diagnosed with depression, he said.
"If he decides to hide it, it's likely that he will successfully hide it," said Andreas Adrian, a spokesman for Germany's Association of Aeromedical Examiners. Certified aeromedical examiners are obliged to inform the Federal Aviation Authority if they detect a medical condition that could compromise a pilot's ability to fly, said Adrian.
Since such examiners are generally not permitted to conduct drug tests, and are not trained or required to diagnose psychological illnesses, they "may only find out about such a condition if the pilot reveals it or demonstrates severe characteristics of these specific diseases," he said.
Commercial pilots in Germany must undergo medical exams annually to maintain their licences. If those checks reveal conditions that may impair a pilot's ability to fly, that expert is not permitted to pass the patient and must inform the aviation authority. This office then makes the call about what additional exams or treatments may have to be administered to assess if the pilot is fit to fly.
Germanwings victim's father calls for increased focus on pilot welfare
The father of one of the victims of last week's plane crash in the French Alps has called for airlines to take greater care over pilots' welfare.
"I believe the airlines should be more transparent and our finest pilots looked after properly," said Philip Bramley, from Hull in northern England. "We put our lives and our children's lives in their hands."
His 28-year-old son, Paul Bramley, was one of 150 people killed in Tuesday's disaster.
Andreas Lubitz joined Germanwings in 2013, and had passed all required medical check-ups.
"The test that will get you into a Lufthansa flight training programme is a very hard test and this is why most people who get into those pilot classes will train for those tests," said David Hasse, the editor-in-chief of German aviation website airliners.de.
"There are coaching facilities, companies that are specialised in training people on how to pass those tests, and they will also advise you on how to behave in psychological tests."
By Jessica Camille Aguirre and Jean-Baptiste Piggin
March 31, 2015, 2:43 am
Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings passenger plane last week, had received therapy for suicidal tendencies before obtaining his pilot licence, prosecutors say.
"The co-pilot was in psychotherapeutic treatment over a long period, years ago ... with a suicidal tendency noted," Dusseldorf prosecutors said in a statement on Monday.
But there had been "no indication of a physical illness".
In visits with psychiatrists and neurologists since that time there was no evidence of "suicidal thoughts or aggression towards others," the prosecutors added.
Lubitz, who joined Germanwings in 2013, is believed to have locked himself inside the Airbus A320's cockpit and intentionally slammed the aircraft into a mountainside in southern France, killing himself and 149 others, including two Australians, on board last week.
Investigators said on Monday they still could not speculate as to his motive for manually changing the trajectory of the plane and remaining unresponsive as his chief pilot banged on the locked cockpit door and pleaded to be let inside.
They added that there was nothing in Lubitz's personal or familial circumstances, or professional conditions, that could provide a potential motive.
Addressing reports that Lubitz also had an eyesight condition, prosecutor spokesman Christoph Kumpa repeated that investigators had not found evidence for any physical condition, including sight problems.
The teaching hospital at Dusseldorf University refused to say on Friday what his illness was, except that it was not depression.
Lubitz was at the hospital on three occasions starting February, the last on March 10, for a diagnostic examination.
French prosecutors said the likelihood Lubitz struggled with psychological issues remains a central theory into his possible motive.
German prosecutors, who have remained reluctant to share details into Lubitz's personal life, said they had not found a suicide note or claim of responsibility.
A spokeswoman for Lufthansa declined to comment on the prosecutor's statement, but said that all pilots undergo a medical fitness test before receiving a licence. The tests are repeated at 12 month intervals, and include a psychological evaluation.
"The prosecutor's statement has been noted. We cannot comment about the evidence regarding psychological treatment or doctors visits," the spokeswoman said.
German doctor-patient privacy laws do not allow physicians to inform patients' employers about any condition.
German prosecutors had said they found torn doctor's notes in Lubitz's apartment giving him sick leave from work on the day of the doomed flight.
Recovery efforts at the crash zone, in a remote region of the French Alps, stalled on Monday morning as adverse weather conditions delayed helicopter flights that have been transporting investigators to the area.
Investigators at the crash site are still focused on finding the contents of a second black box that could give them clues into the flight's last moments.
They were also piecing together DNA evidence from 400 to 600 pieces of humans remains that could help them identify victims, but Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin told dpa that the DNA of the co-pilot had not yet been identified.
Second ‘black box’ data recorder from German jet located at crash site
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 02 April, 2015, 10:46pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 02 April, 2015, 11:01pm
Reuters in Paris
French gendarmes prepare to go to the crash site of the German Airbus A320 in Seyne-les-Alpes. Photo: AFP
The second ‘black box’ data recorder from the site of last week’s Germanwings plane crash has been found, France’s Gendarmerie police authority said on Thursday.
The Marseille prosecutor in charge of the case, Brice Robin, said he was was planning a news conference for later on Thursday.
The Flight Data Recorder contains readings from hundreds of parameters of the Airbus A320 jetliner including any pilot commands.
If intact, the data is expected to provide crucial further evidence on the final moments of the flight in which the co-pilot is suspected of crashing the jet deliberately.
France’s BEA air crash investigation authority, which is expected to decode the information on the data recorder, was not immediately available for comment.
French officials deny Germanwings crash video exists; 'no bodies found intact' at crash site
Investigators complete retrieval of bodies but say mobile phones retrieved from site have not been sent for analysis
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 02 April, 2015, 1:21am
UPDATED : Thursday, 02 April, 2015, 11:49am
Agence France-Presse in Paris
French emergency rescue services work among debris of the Germanwings passenger jet at the crash site near Seyne-les-Alpes, France. Police denied that a cellphone video showing the last terrifying moments in the cabin was retrieved at the crash site. Photo: AP
A video purportedly showing the final seconds inside the cabin of the ill-fated Germanwings airliner minutes before it crashed has emerged, two European media outlets said yesterday, although French police denied the claims.
One sequence reportedly shows a chaotic scene with passengers screaming "My God".
French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild said the authenticity of the video filmed on a mobile phone is "unquestionable" and that it had been retrieved from the wreckage of last week's crash in the French Alps.
However, French police Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marc Menichini denied that investigators had found mobile phone footage at the crash site, saying the reports were "completely wrong" and "unwarranted".
The recording lasting just a few seconds showed that passengers knew what was happening to them before the plane slammed into a mountain, instantly killing all 150 people on board, according to the reports.
"The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people, but the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them," said Paris Match.
People were heard crying "My God" in several languages, it said.
It added that "metallic banging" could be heard more than three times - possibly the attempts of the pilot to open the cockpit door with a heavy object.
A forensic expert of the French gendarmerie disaster victim identification unit working in a mobile laboratory near the site of the March 24 crash of a Germanwings Airbus A320. Photo: Reuters
Investigators evaluating voice recorder data say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz allegedly locked his captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane.
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, who is handling the case in France, said none of the mobile telephones collected at the crash site had been sent for analysis, but said anyone with footage "must hand it over immediately to investigators".
Lufthansa said on Tuesday that Lubitz had told officials at the airline's training school in 2009 that he had gone through a period of severe depression, raising questions about screening process for pilots. Prosecutors have said he suffered from "suicidal tendencies" before obtaining his pilot's licence.
Based on black box cockpit recordings recovered the day of the crash, investigators believe the Germanwings co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately slammed the plane into the mountain, killing everyone on board.
Meanwhile, investigators have finished retrieving human remains from the crash site on the French Alps and are now trying to match them with DNA profiles from the 150 people killed - an arduous task that could leave families waiting for months.
The extraordinary recovery process mobilized hundreds of people and cut a stony road into a forested Alpine mountainside to help the team bring back anything they found, from a body part to a tiny shred of skin. Not a single intact body was found.
Flags representing different nations affected by the tragedy are deployed during an homage ceremony for the victims of the Germwanwings crash. Photo: AP
The impact of the March 24 crash shattered the plane and all those inside, ripped a black box from its orange protective casing, and left shreds of metal and cloth scattered across hundreds of metres.
The crime lab handling the samples has only received complete DNA profiles for about 60 victims from their relatives because it takes time to gather samples from families still reeling from their loss.
Dental and surgical records, tattoos, DNA from hair, or toothbrushes will all serve to identify and ultimately return the remains to families.
Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Marc Menichini, who has been involved in the operation focusing on recovering victims’ remains, said Wednesday “there are no longer any visible remains” at the crash site.
A special unit of mountain troops, with help from German investigators, is now clearing the crash site of everything else that is there, including debris and personal effects.
Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr (right) and Germanwings managing director Thomas Winkelmann speak at a memorial for the victims. Photo: Reuters
On Wednesday, the chief executive of Germanwings’ parent company Lufthansa said it will take “a long, long time” to understand what led to the crash - but refused to say what else the airline knew about the mental health of the co-pilot and why they haven’t released more information about it.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr and the head of its low-cost airline Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann, visited the crash area yesterday.
German prosecutors say Lubitz’s medical records from before he received his pilot’s licence referred to “suicidal tendencies,” but visits to doctors since then showed no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression against others.
The revelations intensify questions about how much Lufthansa and its insurers will pay in damages for the passengers who died - and about how thoroughly the aviation industry and government regulators screen pilots for psychological problems.
Germanwings killer pilot was refused medical certificate by US five years ago
Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately crashed a plane, killing 150, was refused pilot's licence
PUBLISHED : Friday, 01 May, 2015, 10:37pm
UPDATED : Friday, 01 May, 2015, 10:37pm
Reuters in Berlin and Washington
Former Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz.Photo: AP
US authorities temporarily refused a private pilot's medical certificate in 2010 for Andreas Lubitz, the pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings plane last month, according to documents released by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Voice and data recordings from the Germanwings flight on March 24 show Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and set the plane on course to crash into the French Alps, killing all 150 on board.
Investigators in Germany have found evidence that Lubitz, who during his training six years ago had informed the Lufthansa flight school of a period of "severe depression", had researched methods of suicide in the period leading up to the tragedy. He had also hidden doctors' notes signing him off work from his employers.
In a letter dated July 8, 2010, published on its website following a freedom of information request, the FAA said Lubitz was ineligible for an airman medical certificate and that further reports from doctors on his medication and treatment were required due to his history of reactive depression.
Information provided by doctors to the FAA shows Lubitz was treated with Cipralex and Mirtazapine and received psychotherapeutic treatment from January to October 2009.
"Severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms in complete remission," states the diagnosis given by German doctors and provided to the FAA, which was scrutinising Lubitz because he applied privately for a pilots' license in the United States.
After reviewing the medical records, the FAA awarded a third-class medical certificate, typically used by student pilots and those flying recreationally, to Lubitz but said in a letter dated July 28, 2010 that he should not fly should he develop new symptoms or require further medication or treatment.
