The A320 jet operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline was obliterated when it went down in a rugged area of ravines on Tuesday while flying over France en route to Duesseldorf from Barcelona.
A A320 jet operated by Lufthansa‘s Germanwings budget airline was obliterated when it went down in a rugged area of ravines on Tuesday while flying over France en route to Duesseldorf from Barcelona.
No distress call was received from the aircraft, but France said one of the two “black box” flight recorders had been recovered from the site 2,000 meters (6,000 feet) above sea level.
According to Reuters, French investigators will sift through wreckage on Wednesday for clues into why a German Airbus ploughed into an Alpine mountainside, killing all 150 people on board including 16 schoolchildren returning from an exchange trip to Spain.
French President Francois Hollande will visit the area about 100 km (65 miles) north of the Riviera city of Nice today along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Germanwings believed 67 Germans had been on the flight and Spain’s deputy prime minister said 45 passengers had Spanish names. One Belgian was also aboard. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed two Australian citizens had died, a mother and her adult son from the state of Victoria.
Also among the victims were 16 teenagers and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany. They were on their way home after a week-long Spanish exchange program near Barcelona. It was a reciprocal visit after 12 Spanish students spent a week at their school in December.
The A320 is one of the world’s most used passenger jets and has a good safety record. The Germanwings plane was 24 years old and powered by engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran.
ECA Statement on Germanwings flight 4U-9525
The European Cockpit Association (ECA) would like to express its most sincere condolences to the families and friends of those aboard the Germanwings flight 9525.
“On behalf of European pilots, I wish to express our deepest condolences to all victims of this enormous tragedy,” says ECA President Capt. Dirk Polloczek. “Our thoughts are with the passengers, my colleagues, the crew and their families and friends. In such difficult times, we could only share our sorrow and offer our most heartfelt sympathy.”
We are confident that a thorough investigation according to well established European and international procedures will allow us to understand what happened and make sure that such a disaster does not happen again.
“We are all deeply saddened by this tragic loss,” says Philip von Schöppenthau, ECA Secretary General. “At this stage the search and rescue operation is still ongoing. There are still many open questions and all efforts should be now focussed on finding out what happened. We should allow the civil aviation experts to carry out their investigation without any pressure or speculations.”
Whilst the investigation is taking place, with the gathering, recording and analysis of all relevant information including statements from witnesses, there should be no disclosure of the accident’s details, data or records, in order to avoid misinterpretation of the events that occurred, and early conclusions. ECA will continue to monitor the situation closely.
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