Germanwings Flight Carrying at Least 148 Crashes in Southern France

[Caliga]

 

Germanwings Flight Carrying at Least 148 Crashes in Southern France
By NICOLA CLARK
MARCH 24, 2015

PARIS — A German plane carrying at least 142 passengers and six crew members from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed Tuesday in southern France, the French civil aviation authority confirmed.

The wreckage of the aircraft, an Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, a budget subsidiary of Lufthansa, was located by a French military helicopter near the town of Prads-Haute-Bléone, according to Eric Héraud, a spokesman in Paris for the aviation authority, the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile.

The pilots declared an emergency at 10:47 a.m. local time and descended rapidly to around 5,000 feet, from a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet, while flying over the town of Barcelonnette in the Alpes de Haute Provence region, Mr. Héraud said.

President François Hollande of France said many of the victims were German. "The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, suggest that there might not be any survivors," he said.

Mr. Hollande said he would be in contact with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and King Felipe VI of Spain, who is visiting France on Tuesday. He said that all information would be shared with the German and Spanish authorities.

"We must feel grief because this is a tragedy that happened on our soil," Mr. Hollande said. "I want to make sure that there have been no other consequences as the accident happened in a very difficult area to access, and I do not know yet if there were houses nearby. We will know in the next few hours. In the meantime, we must show support."

[Martinus]

This is quite bad.

[mongers]

Not sure what good the wall-to-wall live new coverage will do, little information so far and unlikely for a few more hours before rescue crews can examine the crash site in detail.

[Liep]

Is wall-to-wall live news coverage ever good?

[mongers]

Is wall-to-wall live news coverage ever good?

Were it's an evolving situation and the coverage could provide information that affects/changes some peoples decisions, say during a revolution or riot, like those few days in Egypt or when coverage of the riots in England gave people an idea of where and where not to go?

[Syt]

And: A flight from Barcelona crashes near a small town named Barcelonnette? Seriously, that's weird.

[Duque de Bragança]

Oh dear. 

Hope it wasn't terrorism.

Does not seem so yet. At least the remains will be easily found unlike previous crashes.

[mongers]

Oh dear. 

Hope it wasn't terrorism.

Does not seem so yet. At least the remains will be easily found unlike previous crashes.

Yes, that's something for the relatives, as opposed to the Malaysian airliner or the delays faced by those close to the Ukraine flight victims.

[Admiral Yi]

Is wall-to-wall live news coverage ever good?

During a war it can be fun.

[grumbler]

Damn.    And that was the safest airliner in the world (probably still is, even after this).

[Malthus]

 

Anyone else watch that air-crash forensics show "Mayday"? I used to, until my wife told me to stop because it freaked her out too much.

[The Brain]

 

[Duque de Bragança]

One black box has been found.

//http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0324/689326-germanwings-plane-crash/

[Caliga]

I used to, until my wife told me to stop because it freaked her out too much.

Why?  FYI I've never heard of this show so I'm not sure why it'd freak her out.

[Malthus]

I used to, until my wife told me to stop because it freaked her out too much.

Why?  FYI I've never heard of this show so I'm not sure why it'd freak her out.

She has a bit of a phobia about vehicles crashing, ever since she totaled our car (mechanical problems, single-car accident). The show is all about recounting the history of plane crashes and the subsequent investigations to root out the causes of same.

The ironic thing is that when planning holidays, she is always in favour of extensive, adventerous travel plans involving much use of potentially dangerous vehicles - see my thread on our recent holiday in Mexico, that involved four airplane rides (two on budget Mexican locals), travelling through Mexico City traffic by car, and a 13 hour trip to the Guatamalian border over mountainous roads in a Mexican "combi" held together with chewing gum and twine, apparently. 

Much screaming & panic attacks ensued.