A Germanwings jet carrying 150 people from Barcelona to Duesseldorf slammed into a remote section of the French Alps on Tuesday, sounding like an avalanche as it scattered pulverized debris across a rocky mountain and down its steep ravines. All aboard were assumed killed.
The pilots sent out no distress call and had lost radio contact with their control center, France's aviation authority said, deepening the mystery over the A320's mid-flight crash after a surprise 8-minute descent.
———————————————
Latest Updates
Refresh to see the latest ongoing updates on the Germanwings jet crash. ▼
———————————————
What caused Germanwings crash?
It is way too early to know for sure what happened, but here are some options.
———————————————
The crash left officials and families across Europe reeling in shock. Sobbing, grieving relatives at both airports were led away by airport workers and crisis counselors. One German town was rent with sorrow after losing 16 high school students coming back from an exchange program in Spain.
"This is pretty much the worst thing you can imagine," a visibly rattled Haltern Mayor Bodo Klimpel said at a hastily called press conference.
As helicopters were deployed to reach the crash site, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged reporters not to speculate on the cause.
"We still don't know much beyond the bare information on the flight, and there should be no speculation on the cause of the crash," she said in Berlin. "All that will be investigated thoroughly."
Lufthansa Vice President Heike Birlenbach told reporters in Barcelona that for now "we say it is an accident."
In Washington, the White House said American officials were in contact with their French, Spanish and German counterparts.
"There is no indication of a nexus to terrorism at this time," said U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan.
Photos of the crash site showed scattered black flecks across a mountain and several larger airplane body sections with windows, five in one chunk and four in another. French officials said a helicopter crew that landed briefly in the area saw no signs of life.
"Everything is pulverized. The largest pieces of debris are the size of a small car. No one can access the site from the ground," Gilbert Sauvan, president of the general council, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, told The Associated Press.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said a black box had been located at the crash site and "will be immediately investigated." He did not say whether it was a data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder.
Germanwings is low-cost carrier owned by Lufthansa, Germany's biggest airline, and serves mostly European destinations. Tuesday's crash was its first involving passenger deaths since it began operating in 2002. The Germanwings logo, normally maroon and yellow, was blacked out on its Twitter feed.
Germanwings said Flight 9525 carried 144 passengers, including two babies, and six crew members. Officials believe 67 Germans were on board, including 16 high school students from Haltern, and, according to the opera house in Duesseldorf, bass baritone Oleg Bryjak. Dutch officials said one citizen was killed.
The plane left Barcelona Airport at 10:01 a.m., then began descending again shortly after reaching its cruising height of 38,000 feet, Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann told reporters in Cologne. The descent lasted eight minutes.
Eric Heraud of the French Civil Aviation Authority said the Germanwings plane lost radio contact with a control center at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, but "never declared a distress alert itself." He said the combination of loss of radio contract and the plane's quick descent prompted the control center to declare a distress situation.
"We cannot say at the moment why our colleague went into the descent, and so quickly, and without previously consulting air traffic control," said Germanwings' director of flight operations, Stefan-Kenan Scheib.
The plane crashed at an altitude of about 2,000 meters (6,550 feet) at Meolans-Revels, near the popular ski resort of Pra Loup. The site is 700 kilometers (430 miles) south-southeast of Paris.
"It was a deafening noise. I thought it was an avalanche, although it sounded slightly different. It was short noise and lasted just a few seconds," Sandrine Boisse, the president of the Pra Loup tourism office, told The Associated Press.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM television he expected "an extremely long and extremely difficult" search-and-rescue operation because of the area's remoteness. The weather in the area deteriorated Tuesday afternoon, with a chilly rain falling.
Winkelmann said the pilot, whom he did not name, had more than 10 years' experience working for Germanwings and its parent airline Lufthansa.
The aircraft was delivered to Lufthansa in 1991, had approximately 58,300 flight hours in some 46,700 flights, Airbus said. The plane underwent a routine check in Duesseldorf on Monday, and its last regular full check took place in the summer of 2013.
Winkelmann said teams from Airbus, Germanwings, Lufthansa and Lufthansa's technical division had arrived in France and were on their way to the crash site.
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."
Polizzi said the plane crashed about 5-to-8 kilometers (3-to-11 miles) from his place, which is closed for the season.
"It's going to be very difficult to get there. The mountain is snowy and very hostile," he said.
The municipal sports hall of Seyne-les-Alpes, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Val d'Allos ski resort, was being set up to take bodies from the crash.
The safest part of a flight is normally when the plane is at cruising elevation. Just 10 percent of fatal accidents occur at that point, according to a safety analysis by Boeing. In contrast, takeoff and the initial climb accounts for 14 percent of crashes and final approach and landing accounts for 47 percent.
In Paris, French President Francois Hollande called the crash "a tragedy on our soil."
The last time a passenger jet crashed in France was the 2000 Concorde accident, which left 113 dead - 109 in the plane and four on the ground.
Merkel spoke with both Hollande and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy about the crash, immediately cancelling all other appointments.
"The crash ... is a shock that plunges us in Germany, the French and the Spanish into deep sorrow," said Merkel, who planned to travel to the region Wednesday.
The A320 plane is a workhorse of modern aviation. The single-aisle, twin-engine jet is used to connect cities between one and five hours apart. It is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet but it can begin to experience problems as low as 37,000 feet.
Worldwide, 3,606 A320s are in operation, according to Airbus.
The A320 family also has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a Boeing safety analysis.
---
Hinnant contributed from Paris. Thomas Adamson and Elaine Ganley in Paris, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Geir Moulson and David Rising in Berlin, Frank Augstein in Duesseldorf, Al Clendenning in Madrid, Joe Wilson in Barcelona, Kirsten Grieshaber from Haltern, Germany, and AP Airlines writer Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed.
Latest updates
All times listed in Eastern Daylight Time. Local time in Paris (Central Europe Time) is 5 hours ahead.
8:03 p.m. EDT
Germanwings has had to cancel seven flights out of Dusseldorf because a number of crew members felt they were unfit to fly following news of the accident.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said Tuesday evening that he understood the crew members' sentiments.
"One must not forget: many of our Germanwings crews have known crew members who were onboard the crashed plane," Spohr said.
"It is now more important to ensure psychological assistance if needed. And we will get back to a full flight operation as soon as possible then. But for me, this is rather secondary now," he added.
6:10 p.m. EDT
Hundreds of students, parents and townspeople from a small Spanish town have gathered at a weekly mass to mourn a group of German exchange students who died in the plane crash over the French Alps after visiting the town.
The mass at a local church turned into an unofficial outpouring of grief for the students and their two teachers who were among the 150 people who died in the crash Tuesday.
Andrea Perez Martinez, 20, who had participated in the exchange with the German school in Haltern four years ago came to mourn the loss of one of the two teachers, whom she identified as Claudia.
"This really hurts because the teacher, one of the two that died, was with us on the trips we took and everything when we went there," Perez Martinez said.
The Spanish school that hosted the German students, Institut Giola, said in a statement: "We extend our condolences to the victims of this tragic accident as well as the educational community of the Joseph-Konig-Gymnasium" in Germany.
5:50 p.m. EDT
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr says initial information about the cause of the plane crash over the French Alps, which killed all 150 people onboard, should be available "relatively quickly."
Spohr expressed satisfaction that authorities had found the first black box from the Germanwings plane that crashed on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf and said he would not speculate on the cause of the crash until its data had been analyzed.
Spohr told Germany's ARD television the firm and investigators would "try to find out and then understand how this blackest day of our company's 60-year history could happen."
Germanwings is a low-cost carrier owned by Lufthansa.
4:45 p.m. EDT
The mayor of the small Spanish town of Jaca in the Pyrenees mountains says that a woman originally from the town died in the crash along with her baby boy.
Jaca Mayor Victor Barrio said Marina Bandres had been attending a funeral in Jaca for a relative and was taken to the Barcelona airport by her father.
Bandres lived in Britain. Barrio did not know if her husband was on the flight with her and the boy, Julian, who was seven or eight months old.
The second baby on the flight that crashed on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf was the child of German opera singer Maria Radner and her husband, also on the flight.
4:35 p.m. EDT
A rescue official says about 10 police will spend the night at the site of a Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps to guard it.
Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Meninchini of the regional police rescue service said search operations will resume at daybreak.
He said the recovery operation is expected to last a week.
Officials have said all 150 onboard the plane were likely killed when it crashed on its way from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany.
4:00 p.m. EDT
French authorities have called off the search of the crash site in the French Alps of a Germanwings airplane with 150 people aboard, after night fell on the hard-to-reach area.
Lt. Col. Simon-Pierre Delannoy of the regional police rescue service said on BFM television that the conditions for the search had become too difficult.
Helicopters stopped flying over the area at nightfall.
The complex search operation was expected to resume Wednesday morning.
The Airbus A320 was traveling from Barcelona to Duesseldorf when it crashed Tuesday on a mountainside near Meolans-Revels and the popular Pra Loup ski resort.
3:20 p.m. EDT
A Spanish opera house says a second singer, German contralto Maria Radner along with her husband and baby, were among the 150 victims of the plane crash in the French Alps.
Earlier Tuesday, an opera house in Duesseldorf said bass baritone Oleg Bryjak was on the plane which crashed on its way from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany.
Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu said Radner, like Bryjak, had performed in its production of Richard Wagner's "Siegfried."
2:55 p.m. EDT
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the crash site is "a picture of horror."
After being flown over the crash scene and briefed by French authorities, he said: "The grief of the families and friends is immeasurable. We must now stand together. We are united in our great grief."
He was also quoted by his ministry as thanking the French for their "exemplary" help.
The Germanwings flight crashed in France on its way from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany.
2:35 p.m. EDT
Germany's soccer federation says the national team, the World Cup holder, will play with black armbands when it takes on Australia in a friendly Wednesday.
It said there will be a minute of silence before kick-off for the 150 people who died when a Germanwings plane crashed in the French Alps en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
Federation President Wolfgang Niersbach said "this overshadows everything."
"We owe it the victims and their families to commiserate as a soccer family."
2:05 p.m. EDT
A Lufthansa vice president says the company is treating the crash of a Germanwings jet in France that carried 150 people as an accident for "the time being."
Heike Birlenbach told reporters in Barcelona that for now "we say it is an accident. There is nothing more we can say right now."
She also said that the plane, bound for Duesseldorf in Germany, took off from Barcelona 30 minutes late Tuesday but did not know what caused the delay.
The Airbus A320 was inspected by Lufthansa's technical team on Monday.
Germanwings is a low-cost carrier owned by Lufthansa.
1:50 p.m. EDT
An opera house in Duesseldorf says bass baritone Oleg Bryjak was among the 150 people onboard the plane that crashed in the French Alps.
Officials believe all onboard were likely killed when the plane crashed on its way from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany.
The Deutsche Oper am Rhein said Bryjak was on his way back from Barcelona, where he had sung Alberich in Richard Wagner's "Siegfried" at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
Director Christoph Meyer said that "we have lost a great performer and a great person in Oleg Bryjak. We are stunned."
1:30 p.m. EDT
A French Interior Ministry official says the black box has been recovered from the site in the French Alps where a plane carrying 150 people crashed.
The official, who was not authorized to speak about the crash publicly, confirmed to The Associated Press that the black box was in hand.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve earlier Tuesday said the black box had been located and would be handed to investigators in coming hours.
Officials believe all onboard were likely killed when the plane crashed on its way from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany.
12:50 p.m. EDT
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says a black box has been located at the site in the French Alps where a plane crashed while traveling from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
Cazeneuve, speaking from the Alps region, said the black box had been located and would ultimately help in the investigation into the cause of the crash Tuesday.
It wasn't immediately clear if the box had been recovered.
Officials believe all 150 people onboard the plane were likely killed when it crashed.
12:25 p.m. EDT
A spokesman for the French Civil Aviation authority says the plane that crashed in the French Alps with 150 people on board never sent out a distress signal.
Eric Heraud said the plane lost radio contact at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, but "never declared a distress alert itself."
He said it was the combination of loss of radio contract with control and the plane's descent which prompted the control service to declare a distress.
Heraud said six investigators from the Bureau of Accident Investigations, or BEA, were en route from Paris and would be at the crash site by evening. One investigator from the region was already present, he said.
Officials believe all onboard were likely killed when the plane crashed on its way from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany.
12:15 p.m. EDT
The German North Rhine-Westphalia state Education Ministry says a group of 16 tenth-graders and their two teachers were on board the Germanwings plane that crashed in France.
Ministry spokeswoman Barbara Loecherbach told The Associated Press on Tuesday they had confirmed the school group from a high school in the city of Haltern, northeast of Duesseldorf, were on board the plane.
Haltern Mayor Bodo Klimpel told reporters at a press conference: "This is, of course, the worst thing you could imagine."
11:55 a.m. EDT
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says 10 helicopters and a military plane have been mobilized to the site in the French Alps where a Germanwings plane crashed en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
At a news conference at Seyne les Alpes, Cazeneuve left open the possibility that some of the 150 people onboard could have survived.
He said "the violence of the shock leaves little hope," but refused to be categorical.
A photo of the crash scene from La Provence newspaper showed scattered flecks across a mountain and several larger pieces which appear to be part of the body of the plane, with five windows seen on one and four on another.
11:40 a.m. EDT
A German official says a high school group returning from an exchange in Spain was on board the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people onboard.
The school they had visited, about 45 minutes from Barcelona, told The Associated Press that 16 students from the town of Haltern in Germany had been on a weeklong exchange that ended Tuesday.
North Rhine-Westphalia state Education Minister Sylvia Loerhmann said Tuesday that "we know that the school group boarded the plane," the dpa news agency reported.
Local police said they are still waiting on official confirmation the students had been killed, but have already sent staff to the school to assist students and teachers. The school refused to comment.
11:20 a.m. EDT
A spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council says there is no indication the plane crash in the French Alps was the result of terrorism.
Bernadette Meehan said in a statement Tuesday "there is no indication of a nexus to terrorism at this time."
The White House says American officials have been in touch with French, German and Spanish officials to offer assistance.
Officials say all 150 people onboard were likely killed when the plane crashed in the French Alps Tuesday as it was flying from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf, Germany.
11:05 a.m. EDT
A local lawmaker says the debris from the plane crash in the French Alps that killed all 150 people on board is spread over 100-200 meters (110-220 yards).
Gilbert Sauvan, president of the general council of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, told the AP that "everything is pulverized."
He said the largest pieces of debris are the size of a small car.
Sauvan said no one can access the site from the ground, but that helicopters are circling the area to get information and 500 firefighters and gendarmes are in the area.
10:50 a.m. EDT
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says a helicopter has managed to land near where a passenger plane carrying 150 people crashed in the Alps, and has found there were no survivors.
The weather in the area deteriorated Tuesday afternoon, with a chilly rain falling.
Gilbert Sauvan, of the local council, told Les Echos newspaper, "The plane is disintegrated."
"The largest debris is the size of a car," he added.
The Germanwings Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, Germany, came down in the mountains on Tuesday morning after an eight-minute descent from its cruising height. Officials said they are still establishing whether there was a distress call.
10:20 a.m. EDT
The boss of airline Germanwings says the plane went into a long descent before it crashed into the French Alps, likely killing all 150 people on board.
Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said the plane began descending again shortly after it reached its cruising height following takeoff from Barcelona Airport. The descent lasted eight minutes, he told reporters in Cologne. Radar and air traffic control contact broke off at 10:53 a.m.
He said the pilot had more than 10 years' experience working for Germanwings and its parent airline Lufthansa. Airbus said the A320 was delivered to Lufthansa in 1991.
Germanwings said the passenger manifest included two babies. Officials believe there were 67 German nationals on board.
10:05 a.m. EDT
Officials at two airports are rushing to provide help and information to relatives and friends of the passengers aboard the crashed Germanwings flight 9525.
In Barcelona, from where the plane took off Tuesday morning, police escorted people, some of them crying, through a terminal and took them to a secure part of the airport. They did not speak to the media, and one woman held a jacket over the head of a sobbing woman.
In Duesseldorf, the destination airport, family members arriving at the airport were taken from the main terminal to a nearby building. Airport employees partly covered the building with sheets to keep the relatives out of the eye of the public.
A total of 150 people were on board the plane when it crashed in the French Alps. No survivors are expected to be found.
9:50 a.m. EDT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will head to the remote mountain in the French Alps where a Germanwings passenger plane crashed with 150 people aboard.
She says her thoughts are "with those people who so suddenly lost their lives, among them many compatriots."
Merkel says she will travel to the region on Wednesday, a day after her foreign and transport ministers were heading to the crash site.
She is urging people not to speculate on the cause of the crash until an investigation can be conducted.
No survivors are expected in the crash of the plane, which was traveling Tuesday morning from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany.
9:05 a.m. EDT
The owner of a French Alpine camping ground says he heard a series of loud noises in the air before a Germanwings passenger plane carrying 150 people crashed to the ground.
Pierre Polizzi told The Associated Press the noise began at 11:30 a.m.
"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 noise I heard was long - like 8 seconds - as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane speed. There was another long noise about 30 seconds later."
Polizzi said it would be difficult to get to the site of the crash. "The mountain is snowy and very hostile."
8:45 a.m. EDT
Spanish King Felipe has canceled his state visit to France following the crash of a plane in the southern French Alps.
Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told reporters in Seville that there were 45 people aboard the plane with Spanish last names, but that authorities have not confirmed how many of them were Spanish.
8:40 a.m. EDT
Airline Germanwings says there were 144 passengers and six crew aboard a plane that crashed in the French Alps.
Manager Oliver Wagner did not say whether there were any survivors and added it was not currently possible to give more information on how the accident occurred. "I promise that we will do everything to clear up the events thoroughly," he said. "We are endlessly sorry for what has happened."
Other officials have given slightly differing figures for the number on board.
The Germanwings logo, normally maroon and yellow, was blacked out on its Twitter feed.
8:25 a.m. EDT
The Airbus 320 plane that went down in the French Alps is a workhorse of modern aviation. Similar to the Boeing 737, the single-aisle, twin-engine jet is used to connect cities that are between one and five hours apart.
Worldwide, 3,606 A320s are in operation, according to Airbus, which also makes the smaller but near-identical A318 and A319 and the stretched A321. An additional 2,486 of those jets are flying.
The A320 family has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a Boeing safety analysis.
8:10 a.m. EDT
The CEO of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, says he doesn't yet have any information about what happened to its flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf that French officials say has crashed in the Alps.
"My deepest sympathy is with all the relatives and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525," Carsten Spohr was cited in a tweet by Lufthansa as saying. "If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors."
Antonio San Jose, spokesman for Spanish airport authority AENA, told the Onda Cero radio station that authorities do not yet know how many Spaniards were on the jet but that the authority's best information is that 147 people were aboard the plane.
"It would be a miracle if there were survivors but hopefully there will be. We do not know the causes, simply that it lost contact," San Jose said.
8 a.m. EDT
French President Francois Hollande has spoken briefly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to express solidarity following the crash of a Germanwings plane in southern France.
The German ambassador is leaving imminently with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve for the area of the crash.
Spanish King Felipe and his wife are in France on a previously scheduled visit and are currently meeting Hollande.
7:40 a.m. EDT
French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet says debris from the crash of an Airbus A320 has been located and the plane crashed at 2,000 meters altitude in the Alps.
Brandet told BFM television that he expected "an extremely long and extremely difficult" search and rescue operation because of the area's remoteness.
The airplane sent out a distress signal at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, Brandet said.
He said the passenger manifest is being verified.
7:30 a.m. EDT
French President Francois Hollande says no survivors are likely in the Alpine crash of a passenger jet carrying 148 people.
The Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed Tuesday in the French Alps region as it traveled from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, French officials said. Eric Ciotti, the head of the regional council, said search-and-rescue teams were headed to the crash site at Meolans-Revels.
In a live briefing Tuesday, Hollande said the area of the crash was remote and it was not clear whether anyone on the ground had been hurt. Hollande said it was probable that a number of the victims are German.
"It's a tragedy on our soil," he said, adding he would be speaking shortly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The French newspaper La Provence, citing aviation officials, said the Airbus plane carried at least 142 passengers, two pilots and four flight attendants.