RTAn Airbus A320 with 144 passengers and 6 crewmembers has crashed in Digne region, southern France. The jet, which belonged to Germanwings low-cost airline, was flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf.
The jet took off from Barcelona airport at 08:55 GMT, according to Spanish Airport operator AENA.
The plane crash in the French Alps was confirmed by General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The jet crashed in the Upper Bléone Valley, Le Provence wrote. “There are no survivors” in the crash of Germanwings flight 4U9525 in the French Alps, said Alain Vidal, secretary of state for transport on Europe.“There was a distress call…. This distress signal showed that the aircraft was at 1524 meters, in an abnormal situation,” he said.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has confirmed the plane crash and is headed to the scene, local TV reported. He added that debris from the crashed jet has been found near a village.He added that debris from crashed jet has been found near the small town of Barcelonnette, a commune in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence,about 100 km (65 miles) north of the French Riviera city of Nice.
President Francois Hollande said there were no survivors among the 148 people on board, RTL reported. “There were 148 people on board,” French President Francois Hollande said.“The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors.”He also expressed condolences to the families of the victims on his official Twitter account.
Hollande also expressed his sympathies to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the fate of German citizens on board the plane, who were believed to constitute a majority of the passengers. He added that Turkish residents are believed to be among the victims as well.
Forty-five passengers on board the crashed jet are believed to be Spanish, said Spain’s Deputy PM Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said there are fears up to 150 passengers and crew died in the crash, adding that the cause is not yet known.
“We of course don’t know the reasons for the crash,” Valls told the media. “We obviously fear that the 142 to 150 passengers and crew died today, given the conditions of this crash.”
A local witness said he heard a series of loud noises in the air before the jet crashed to the ground.
“There are often fighter jets flying over, so I thought it sounded just like that. I looked outside, but I couldn’t see any fighter planes,” the owner of a French Alpine camping ground, Pierre Polizzi, told AP.
“The noise I heard was long – like eight seconds – as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane speed. There was another long noise about 30 seconds later.”
According to the German Civil Aviation Service, 154 people were killed in the crash.
The plane was lost from the radars at about 09:39 GMT, according to flightradar24, an internet service displaying real-time aircraft flight information on a map.
Meteorological conditions were expected to be quiet at the time of the crash, but the jet reportedly went through unstable weather conditions in the Mediterranean, French weather TV channel La Chaîne Météo said.
Germanwings, a low-cost airline based in Cologne, tweeted that they will inform media immediately about the incident, “as soon as definite information is available.”
Germanwings, a German low-cost airline based in Cologne, is owned by Lufthansa, the largest airline in Europe. The company fleet has a total of 81 aircraft in service, including Airbus A319s and A320s, and Bombardier CRJ900s. Germanwings airlines has confirmed on Twitter that one of its A320 jets crashed.
The Airbus A320, a medium-range commercial passenger jet, typically seats 150 to 180 people.
In the previous crash involving an Airbus A320 plane, AirAsia’s QZ8501 flight was en route to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, on December 28. Out of 162 people on board, there were no survivors.
The last notable air disaster in France was in 2000, when a Concorde operated by Air France crashed on takeoff from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport heading for New York. One hundred and thirteen people died in the crash.
The way the flight was headed it looks like it was going to fly over the CERN LHC.
“The owner of a campground near the crash site, Pierre Polizzi, said he heard the plane making curious noises shortly before it crashed.
‘At 11.30, I heard a series of loud noises in the air. There are often fighter jets flying over, so I thought it sounded just like that. I looked outside, but I couldn’t see any fighter planes,’ he told the AP. ‘The noise I heard was long – like 8 seconds – as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane. There was another long noise after about 30 seconds.’ ”
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/03/24/france-spain-germany-express-solidarity/21156873/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D632950
I know I smoke some good stuff once in a while (ok you got me, more than once in a while), but that debris field looks as if the plane exploded before impact. Why I say this? Look at how small the pieces are and how far they are scattered. I did a quick search of plane crash images, non approach or take off crashes, only crashes that could be called “bought the farm” type and compared.
I agree. Those are itty, bitty pieces that are spread quite a distance.
French investigators are covering up the real reason for the crash. The copilot was a happy fellow liked glider-planing. He could have crashed that if he was suicidal.
I suspect it was a computer failure:
1/ no communications as it happened before ( The Associated Press Wed, Aug 22, 2012: “As United Flight 731 climbed out of Newark with 107 people aboard, the pilot and first officer were startled to find screens that display crucial navigational information were blank or unreadable and radios were dead.”
2/ cockpit door did not open. Electrical/computer malfunction
3/ sensors malfunctioned as it happened before many times on the A320.
Airbus is manufactured primarily in France. French investigators covering malfunctions up and blame it on the copilot. Computer malfunction is almost impossible to override and take manual control on an A320. He will be vindicated in the years to come. Eventually somebody will talk.