Earlier today, Germanwings flight 9525 departed from Barcelona, heading towards Dusseldorf.
As you’re probably aware – this plane sadly did not arrive at its destination, and crashed near Barcelonnette in the French Alps.
Statement from Germanwings:
144 passengers and 6 crew were aboard this flight. There were no survivors of this crash, who are believed to be German or Spanish. The manifest has not been released at the time of writing.
Radar contact was lost at 10:53 Central European Time, with no distress or mayday message believed to be sent.
FlightGlobal has background on the crash.
One of the black boxes from the flight have been recovered. Whilst it has not been revealed if this is the voice or data recorder that has been recovered
The search has been called off for the night, and recommence at first light in the morning.
The plane involved was D-AIPX – an Airbus A320 first delivered in 1991 to Lufthansa and transferred to Germanwings, making the aircraft 24 years old.
The flight number – 4U9525 has been retired (along with the outbound flight 4U9524) to be replaced by 4U9440/4U9441.
Investigations like this need time to develop, and never give up early answers.
At this time, we must rely on fact and not on speculation (which keeps the news networks flowing) – and keep those families affected by the crash who have lost loved ones in our thoughts as we wait for answers from the black boxes and the investigation.
My sole qualification is that I try to be alert and remember facts. there are many experts and imagined experts that will opine on the issue and even my concerns.
Something happened that might have incapacitated the pilots. It seems there was a descent rather than explosion.
Reports state that Af its capabilities above 37,000 feet. maybe Boeing builds them better.
Maybe 24 years old is old for Airbus, they were not built by Boeing.
I do wonder what maintenence was done the night before.