(Updated) French Media Report Plane Crash in the Alps, 148 Aboard

[Cooley Hurd]

Source: ABC News

The French newspaper La Provence says an Airbus plane with at least 142 passengers, two pilots and four flight attendants on board has crashed in the Alps region.

The Germanwings flight was traveling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it crashed between Digne et Barcelonnette, the paper said. It cited French civil aviation authorities for the number of people.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/french-media-report-plane-crash-alps-148-aboard-29862228

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Update: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/french-media-report-plane-crash-alps-148-aboard-29862228

French President Francois Hollande says no survivors are likely in the Alpine crash of a passenger jet carrying 148 people.

The Germanwings passenger jet crashed Tuesday in the French Alps region as it traveled from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, 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.

<snip>

[trusty elf]

1. Oh, no!

How awful!

[Bosonic]

2. Germanwings airliner crashes in French Alps

Germanwings airliner crashes in French Alps

An Airbus A320 airliner has crashed in the French Alps between Barcelonnette and Digne, French aviation officials and police have said.

The jet belongs to the German low-cost airline Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.

The plane had reportedly been en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf and was carrying 142 passengers and six crew.

Both Airbus and Germanwings have said they aware of the reports but cannot yet confirm them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32030270

[brooklynite]

3. The plane is Airbus' equivalent of the 737 (short--medium range)

This particular aircraft was built in 1991.

[brooklynite]

4. CNN: Germanwings was having labor disputes with its pilots

Lufthansa (the owner) was planning to merge the airline with Eurowings, another Lufthansa affiliate.

[brooklynite]

5. Breaking: French President Hollande says no survivors.

[Bosonic]

6. @flightradar24 altitude & speed chart of #4U9525. Aircraft entered a steep but constant descent.

@flightradar24 altitude & speed chart of #4U9525. Aircraft entered a steep but constant descent.

[titaniumsalute]

27. It is odd that they had that much of a decline in Alt

While not increasing airspeed . Matter of fact the airspeed had slightly dropped to 400kts. Usually if there is a big problem that causes a plane to lose altitude quickly they gain airspeed rapidly. If they lost pressurization they could have reduced their alt and used the braking and flaps to slow down but you cannot use flaps at 400 kts.

[drray23]

52. this could mean it was the autopilot doing that.

It would maintain speed while descending.

[DFW]

8. I'm numb. That's a flight I take a lot.

I fly regularly between Düsseldorf and Barcelona, and half the time with German wings.

This is VERY scary, as it touches me personally. I REALLY want to know the cause of this. If it was poor maintenance (and Lufthansa spun off its short-range flights to German Wings to cut costs), then LH is guilty of 148 counts of negligent homicide. If it was ANYTHING ele, I sure as hell want to know, and I want to know before I get on another of those planes.

The report said the plane disappeared at an altitude of 6800 feet. 6800 FEET? OVER THE ALPS??? WTF?? Half of them are higher than 6800 feet high. Something is missing from this story, and I hope some gaps get filled in VERY quickly.

[brooklynite]

9. I think the point is that the descent was the result of whatever happened to the plane

[DFW]

10. I'm sure it was. NO pilot in his right mind would have been that low deliberately

I just want to know WHY. Airports like Geneva and Lyon, where an A-320 can easily land, were less than 20 minutes away by air from the crash site, so it had to have been something sudden and drastic. THAT'S the scary part. The evaluation of the black box can't come fast enough for me.

[Rhiannon12866]

19. MSNBC said that they have an excellent safety record.

Something very unusual must have happened.

[mnhtnbb]

20. I'm worried about terrorism. France is really amped up

and expecting more in the way of terrorist attacks.

From what I've read, there was about 20 minutes from the time of the initial
distress call until they lost contact with the plane. Was that enough time
to change course and get out of the Alps to find an airport?

I agree it will be very important to find that flight recorder asap.

[bklyncowgirl]

21. That's the elephant in the room--and sadly a very strong possiblity.

French airport security though was very good even back in the days before 9/11.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. French security wasn't involved, however - this was a flight from Spain to Germany

on a German plane. It crashed in France.

[bklyncowgirl]

23. My mistake.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. The plane started the rapid descent as soon as it crossed the French shore, and continued straight

http://avherald.com/h?article=483a5651&opt=0

'No distress call made'

Contrary to earlier reports, the authorities in France now say that no distress call was made by the pilot, Kim Willsher in Paris reports.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/mar/24/germanwings-airbus-a320-crashes-in-french-alps-live-updates#block-55116c97e4b01910c3895cb5

[brooklynite]

37. What does it have to do with France?

the was a German plane flying from Spain.

[DFW]

50. France would have had nothing to do with it

I take that route a LOT. France is just flyover country (literally) in this case. You have to fly over France to get to Germany unless you fly 1500 miles out of your way. This is strictly a story having to do with Germany, Spain or both.

[Yo_Mama]

30. Photos of wreckage seem like it broke up in the air.

So far, maybe there's an impact site not shown..

So sorry for the victims and their families and friends.

[Yo_Mama]

29. W/ no Mayday, very disturbing. n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

17. I think I understand.

It wasn't a regular flight for me, so I can only imagine what you must be feeling. In 1994, I was on a USAir flight the day before the same flight crashed with total loss of life. The horror of any air disaster was compounded by the familiarity with the route and connection to the flight number. I have never flown into Pittsburgh again. Completely irrational, but still impossible to shed the creepy feeling.

[Cha]

18. So unbearably sad for all those people and their loved ones..

[titaniumsalute]

28. Why no SOS?

That was a rather long descent...plenty of time for the radio operator to call an SOS distress call. It only takes a thumb or finger flick and a quick verbal SOS.

[darkangel218]

32. I read on daily mail that the plane was 24 years old.

Could be mechanical failure. But if so, how come there was no distress call??? Not one single distress call, in the 10 minutes of descent till they crashed?

It is possible it was a terrorist attack.

[B2G]

33. It was just inspected yesterday as well. nt

[darkangel218]

35. Yes, correct. nt

[jakeXT]

42. Reminds me of the Bilbao incident last ýear

Incident: Lufthansa A321 near Bilbao on Nov 5th 2014, loss of 4000 feet of altitude
By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Nov 18th 2014 17:11Z, last updated Sunday, Dec 28th 2014 22:22Z

A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200, registration D-AIDP performing flight LH-1829 from Bilbao,SP (Spain) to Munich (Germany) with 109 people on board, was climbing through FL310 out of Bilbao about 15 minutes into the flight at 07:03Z, when the aircraft on autopilot unexpectedly lowered the nose and entered a descent reaching 4000 fpm rate of descent. The flight crew was able to stop the descent at FL270 and continued the flight at FL270, later climbing to FL280, and landed safely in Munich about 110 minutes after the occurrence.

The French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that the occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated by Germany's BFU.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Munich for 75 hours before resuming service on Nov 8th.

The Aviation Herald learned that the loss of altitude had been caused by two angle of attack sensors having frozen in their positions during climb at an angle, that caused the fly by wire protection to assume, the aircraft entered a stall while it climbed through FL310. The Alpha Protection activated forcing the aircraft to pitch down, which could not be corrected even by full back stick input. The crew eventually disconnected the related Air Data Units and was able to recover the aircraft.

http://avherald.com/h?article=47d74074

http://www.focus.de/reisen/flug/bericht-ueber-lufthansa-flug-computerprobleme-loesten-beinahe-flugzeug-absturz-aus_id_4559165.html

[Gormy Cuss]

48. Wow. That is scary.

I hope that the black boxes have the answer.

[PearliePoo2]

11. Pilot reportedly got off distress call and that is all.

Catastrophic event at 38,000 feet with rapid decent. Debris is being found in other areas besides impact area.
This is not good at all.

[Yo_Mama]

31. No distress call according to latest. AC called emergency, not aircraft.

Just horrible.

[PearliePoo2]

47. Yes, I see they have retracted the distress call statement.

Which makes it even more strange/scary (IMO)

[Yo_Mama]

51. Yes, and it appears that the aircraft came down in one piece.

The initial accounts of the debris made it sound differently, but now it seems that it didn't break up in midair and some suggestions that the plane was being flown closer to the ground.

Well, they report that they have located at least one of the black boxes. Until they analyze them, from here on it will pretty much be all speculation.

Just so grim that a school party was on this plane. Sad, sad day.

[brooklynite]

12. Looks like CNN is getting the band back together...

MH 370 analysts Richard Quest and Mary Schiavo analyzing from Havana and London.

[brooklynite]

13. French Authorities confirm a distress call was received

[AngryAmish]

14. Please remember many of the facts in the media will be false

This looks bad.

Also, there are filks on this board who know what they are talking about but most of us do not. I am in the latter camp.

[PoliticAverse]

15. "is one of the oldest A320 with serial number 0147 and was delivered in Nov 1990"

From: https://twitter.com/flightradar24

[brooklynite]

16. CNN: last words from cockpit were "Emergency, emergency..."

[Yo_Mama]

36. No, that's false. Apparently AC called it, nothing heard from plane

Typical CNN??

[Purveyor]

38. There are conflicting reports on the distress call. See here:

French Alps Plane Crash: Germanwings Crew 'Did Not Send Distress Signal'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026408171

[lebkuchen]

25. I so hope it wasn't due to terrorism.

There are already several places I won't travel to of late, like Northern Africa, for that reason.

I fly to Spain in two weeks.

GermanWings is a great airline, like Air Berlin. This is a very sad day for Germany.

[darkangel218]

34. We dont know it wasnt terrorism.

There was no distress call. Nothing.

[B2G]

39. The good news is it should be relatively easy

to recover the flight recorders.

[darkangel218]

40. Lets hope so.

But don't forget at what altitude they crashed. And it's not a flat plateau there , from what I understand.

[B2G]

41. Yeah, I've seen the site

But the boxes will ping, so it shouldn't be too difficult...hoping anyway.

[B2G]

44. They have already recovered one of the black boxes. nt

[darkangel218]

45. Lol i just replied the same thing to you

[B2G]

46. I just saw that :-)

[darkangel218]

43. Theyre saying that one of the flight data recorders has already been recovered

[question everything]

26. For anyone who fears flying - the last year has been really hard (nt)

[RobinA]

49. Tell Me!!!

And I'm set to fly at the end of May! On a trip I hadn't planned on making, so I haven't had my usual 1 year to get my head around it. I'm already working on flying to London, transAtlantic OMG!!!, Heathrow [shreik!!] in 2017.

[Marthe48]

53. Such sad news

We have hosted and known so many exchange students over the years, so many teachers. This kind of story is always heartbreaking. This time is feels closer to home. Prayers for all of the lives lost today, and their families.