Image: planespotters.net 

 

A Germanwings Airbus A320 (D-AIPX) with the flight number 4U9525

from Barcelona, Spain to Düsseldorf, Germany  with 144 passengers and 6 crew members

 on board crashed near the community Barcelonnette between 

Grenoble and Nizza. It is confirmed that there are no survivors.

The Airbus A320 reached it's cruise altitude around 10:45 (MET) but left it one minute after. 

The aircraft started to descend for no reason eight minutes before the contact loss and crash.

According to Flightradar24 the plane descended with a sinkrate of 3000-4000 ft/min.

The crew did not declare an emergency before the crash according to

the french news agency AFP. Because the crew didn't make a mayday call,

Air Traffic Control decided to declare an emergency. There was no contact between the crew and ATC anymore.

The crash site is only accessible by foot and helicopters. 500 rescue workers are currently in use.

The last routine check on the aircraft took place yesterday at Düsseldorf airport.

 

24/03/15 According to French media the blackbox was found.

24/03/15 Several crews of germanwings A320s refuse to work because of personal reasons.

25/03/15 17:20 (MET) The voice recorder is damaged but French investigators managed to get information out of it.

26/03/15 According to French authorities the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz (28) with 630 flight hours intentionally crashed the

               Airbus. The Co-Pilot was alone in the cockpit.  "He voluntarily refused to open the door of the cockpit to the pilot and voluntarily began the descent of the plane."

               prosecuter Brice Robin said.

                 

             

             

  © BEA/dpa

 

 

 

First pictures from the crash site

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Registration number

 

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I'll keep you updated.

 

Edited March 26, 201511 yr by Rno

I heard it on the radio. Extremely sad news!

Well that's something that doesn't happen very often here. And that's very strange conditions to crash. Looking forwards to get the results of the investigation.

 

EDIT: Germanwings indicated that the flight continuously lost altitude during 8 minutes straight before crashing, and a french witness declared that the plane wasn't smoking nor showed any particular problem prior to the crash.

Edited March 24, 201511 yr by Hystery

Loss of pressure, perhaps?  Seems the most logical theory at this stage if no smoke or damage was reported prior to the crash. 

Sad news!

RIP passengers.

Loss of pressure, perhaps?  Seems the most logical theory at this stage if no smoke or damage was reported prior to the crash. 

 

In the past they had a lot of incidents with strange smells in the cockpit.

In one aircraft for example it was so bad that the pilots nearly passed out.

Who knows, some report says that the last report from the aircraft was "emergency, emergency". It was a 24 year old aircraft as well, relatively old. But that doesn't really mean much either. Strange, affects Airbus badly because they lose share value for every incident, and so far it seems that 2015 is going to be one of the worst aviation incident years. The AirAsia incident also involved a A320, pity considering how good of a reputation they have.

Read this this morning, R.I.P.  to all those who were lost. Tragic news. Also for the skier must be heartbreaking to know that you heard 150 people lose their lives. 

Always sad to see incidents like this. It seems like there are more and more of these incidents every year. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone on the flights as well as their families.

How tragic. I definitely feel for the families who have lost a love one.

Damn. May the dead rest in peace.

 

It's quite strange how common those accidents are lately. I wonder if there's a connection between them...

Loss of pressure, perhaps?  Seems the most logical theory at this stage if no smoke or damage was reported prior to the crash.

Doubtful. Aircraft at cruise altitude are under autopilot control; crew incapacitation generally leads to the plane following preprogrammed waypoints until it reaches the last one, at which point it maintains heading, altitude, and speed until it runs out of fuel, at which point it maintains altitude at the expense of speed until it stalls, at which point it crashes. See Helios 522 and the Payne Stewart crash. Depressurization-to-crash takes a good while.

Lack of oxygen or toxic fumes *might* have caused an issue by compromising crew judgment to the degree that they'd disable the autopilot, but that's unlikely. I suppose they might have been initiating an emergency descent manually and not have put on oxygen masks in time (so couldn't stop the descent, and if the autopilot's disengaged it wouldn't either).

Here is the altitude and speed data graph for the flight: 

 

 

It was descending at around 3000fpm (Feet per minute), which is a pretty high number for descents, but not alarming. The speed is pretty normal for a passenger plane at cruise speed. I think the pilots were incapacitated due to maybe not following proper procedures, because I believe there are a certain set of procedures that are required to fly around the alps. There are theories that the cabin/cockpit oxygen system failed, which could cause decompression.

 

May everyone on that flight Rest in Peace. 

Edited March 24, 201511 yr by CrossFire

Goodness me, an impact speed of 380 knots. I couldn't imagine that if I tried. I would absolutely HATE to see a plane crash, other incidents wouldn't affect me but something about an aircraft going down just makes me feel completely sick. So tragic

Edited March 24, 201511 yr by SeaHawk14

It's so sad, look at the pictures beteen shatter parts are the people who smilies before this has happened. :(

 

R.I.P

It's so sad, look at the pictures beteen shatter parts are the people who smilies before this has happened. :(

 

R.I.P

Unbelievable isn't it?! No visible wreckage, 150 people's lives ended within a 200m area, and in a few years it won't even be visible anymore, all that will remain is a few bits of wreckage and a memorial. 

 

Unfortunate update, The co-pilot locked out the other pilot and put the plane into a decent.

Reminds me of SilkAir flight 185.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/mar/26/germanwings-plane-crash-investigation-press-conference-live-updates-4u9525

Sounds like it could be terror related. Or suicidal.

Suicidal more than likely, but we will never know for sure. 

The pilot apparently went through depression in the past, but was described as an enthusiastic man by the club he was in, so it's very strange.