A Germanwings plane carrying 150 people has crashed in
the French Alps on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
Helicopters are trying to reach the crash site in remote mountains
- The Airbus A320 - flight 4U 9525 - went down between Digne and Barcelonnette. There are no survivors, officials say.
- The plane crashed after an eight-minute descent, an official said. The cause of the crash is not known and the plane did not send out a distress signal.
- The dead are believed to include 16 German schoolchildren. French and German leaders have expressed shock.
- "This is the hour in which we all feel deep sorrow," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters, adding that she was planning to travel to the crash site.
- A rescue helicopter has reportedly reached the site of the crash, in a remote mountain area.
- Gilbert Sauvan, a local council official, told Les Echos newspaper that the plane had "disintegrated".
- The passengers included a German school class on its way back from an exchange trip.
- Sandrine Boisse, a tourism official from the ski resort of Pra Loup, told the BBC that she had heard a strange noise in the mountains at around 11:00 (10:00 GMT).
- "At first we thought it was on the ski slopes, an avalanche, but it wasn't the same noise," she said. "I think it was the noise of when a plane goes very quickly down."
- The plane began descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued to lose altitude for eight minutes, Germanwings managing director Thomas Winkelmann told reporters.
- He said the aircraft lost contact with French air traffic controllers at 10:53 at an altitude of about 6,000 feet.
- The plane did not send out a distress signal, officials said. Earlier reports of a distress call, quoting the French interior ministry, referred to a message from controllers on the ground.
- The White House has said there is no evidence so far of a terror attack.
- "There is no indication of a nexus to terrorism at this time," National Security Council spokesman Bernadette Meehan told Fox News
- Analysis: Nigel Cassidy, BBC's Europe business reporter
- Although it began its life as an independent low-cost carrier, Germanwings is wholly owned by its parent Lufthansa.
- It operates increasing numbers of the group's point-to-point short-haul routes and takes many passengers from German cities to Mediterranean sunspots.
- The airline has an excellent safety record with no previously reported accidents. The average age of its Airbus fleet is just over nine years old, though flight 4U 9525 was a 24-year-old A320.
- The plan was to phase out the Germanwings brand and replace it with Eurowings.
- There has been a longstanding dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union over early retirement. Pilots went on strike for three days around this time last year.
- French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he had sent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to the scene and a ministerial crisis cell had been set up to co-ordinate the incident.
- The interior ministry said debris had been located at an altitude of 2,000m (6,500ft).
- Spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM TV that it would be "an extremely long and extremely difficult'' search-and-rescue operation because of the remote location.
- Spain's King Felipe, on a state visit to France, thanked the French government for its help and said he was cancelling the rest of his visit.
- The Airbus A320 is a single-aisle passenger jet popular for short and medium-haul flights.
0 ความคิดเห็น :
Post a Comment