What Happened to Germanwings A320?
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Why did a German A320 Airbus with 150 people on board crash in the Alps in southern France? At this moment little is known beyond the fact the aircraft plummeted to earth in less than 8 minutes.
From the BBC:
The Germanwings flight was travelling non-stop from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf in Germany. The cause of the crash is not yet known.
What happened?
The Airbus came down in a remote mountainous region about 2,000m high, near the town of Digne in the Alps.
Rescuers are on their way to the area, which is near the popular ski resort of Pra Loup. The debris has been located.
French President Francois Hollande has described it as a tragedy. He said the circumstances of the crash made it seem unlikely there would be any survivors.
The BBC’s Transport Correspondent Richard Westcott says it seems most likely mechanical failure was behind the crash.
Where the plane came down
The aircraft
The plane is one of the oldest A320s in operation. It entered service for the German airline in 1991.
Reports from Flightradar24, which tracks air traffic around the world, said the Airbus initially climbed to 38,000ft, before it started to descend. It says the signal from the plane was lost at 6,800ft.
According to sources quoted by AFP news agency, the plane issued a distress signal at 10:47 local time (09:47GMT) – about three-quarters of an hour after take-off.
Flightradar24 said the airbus was descending at a rate of about 3-4,000ft per minute, which, it said, was standard for an airport approach.
Who was on on board?
There were 144 passengers on board the plane and six crew.
Spain is a popular holiday destination for German holidaymakers and it seems likely there were many German passengers on board.
Spain’s deputy prime minister said 45 of the passengers were thought to be Spanish.
There were also reported to be some passengers from Turkey.
The French transport minister, Alain Vidalies, said there were no survivors. It does not appear that anyone was hurt on the ground.
Aviation safety
Last year was the safest aviation year on record.
According to safety analysts Ascend, there was one fatal accident per 2.38 million flights in 2014, compared to every 1.91 million flights the year before.
Although these figures did not include the loss of the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, where 298 people died, which was counted as a war loss, rather than an accident.
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I think it was disturbing the Yetis and they finally retaliated.
er…it crashed?
It is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions unless you are related to a victim – then it’s a tragedy of imaginable proportions.
I believe 16 German school children are amongst the dead after enjoying an exchange visit with Spanish students.
It just doesn’t bare thinking about.
What ever caused it is a matter for the authorities to determine and what ever happens from there happens.
For now my thoughts are with loved ones who have lost someone they can never replace and, perhaps, may never recover from losing.
I wonder if an Islamic terrorist group such as ISIS (ISIL) or some affiliate would claim responsibility just so they could continue to show the world how determined they are to rule the world? There seem to be a fair amount of plane crashes these days.
There’s going to be more to this one I’ll bet.
How terrible for those poor people and their families. It just goes to show it can happen anywhere, anytime.