This was the deadliest plane crash in 2015 and in the history of Russian aviation. The crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 killed 224, people including 217 passengers and seven crew members. Here are the five worst aviation disasters of the year: Incoming snowfall and strong winds are forecast for the region, posing a challenge to the recovery effort.įrance 24 journalist John Maguire told the ABC he expected recovery would be difficult.Despite advances in technology in the aviation industry, plane accidents were on the rise in 2015. Seven police and civil security helicopters have been deployed to the area, where an emergency flight control centre has been established to organise the heavy air traffic to and from the crash site, according to a source close to the operation.Īround 360 emergency fire fighters in surrounding regions have been sent to the area to assist local forces. Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who said debris from the plane had already been found, was heading to the scene with Mr Valls and French accident investigators.Ī crisis cell has been set up by authorities in Le Vernet, located in the Blanche valley between the towns of Digne-les-Bains and Barcelonette. ( Reuters: Ina Fassbender) Investigators head to accident site People from pastoral care wait in Dusseldorf airport to support families of passengers on a Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps. He said the group left to catch the flight on Tuesday morning. The children were aged about 15," said Marti Pujol, mayor of the village of Llinars de Valles near Barcelona. "There were 16 children and two teachers who had spent a week here. Mr Winkelmann said he believed that 67 German nationals were on the flight.Īmong those were believed to be 16 German schoolchildren, according to the mayor of a Spanish town that hosted them as exchange students. She said the German foreign office had established a taskforce to handle the situation, and she would travel to the crash site tomorrow. Any speculation on the cause of the accident is not relevant." "We feel uncertain about the precise cause of the accident. "This is a time and hour of great sorrow and grief," she told reporters. German chancellor Angela Merkel offered her sympathies to the passengers' families. Mr Winkelmann said the captain had more than 10 years' experience and had clocked more than 6,000 hours piloting Airbus planes.Īirplane security expert Michel Nesterenko told France 24 that both Lufthansa and its Germanwings subsidiary have "impeccable" safety records. at the moment it's important we do not indulge in speculation," he said. "There were no irregular aspects with the airplane, of course we have to analyse the history.
Germanwings managing director Thomas Winkelmann said the last routine check and inspection of the aircraft took place yesterday by Lufthansa technicians. The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to online database. "Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed and cleared by the authorities for release," Airbus said in a statement. The plane had taken off from Barcelona airport at 10:01 am (local time) according to Mr Winkelmann.Ī spokesman for the DGAC aviation authority said the airplane crashed near the town of Barcelonnette, about 100 kilometres north of the French Riviera city of Nice.ĭGAC said the Germanwings crew did not issue a distress call, rather controllers declared a distress phase after contact was lost.Īirbus also confirmed the crash and said it would send a team of technical advisors to assist the investigation. The plane then crashed," Germanwings managing director Thomas Winkelmann said. "The aircraft's contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers ended at 10:53 am (local time) at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. Germanwings said its Airbus A320 started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes. Mr Hollande said the accident happened in "a zone that is particularly hard to access". Mr Hollande said that he could not say with "total certainty" that no French nationals were aboard the flight. French president Francois Hollande said there was likely to be a significant number of German victims and that he believed another 45 passengers to be Spanish and "probably" some Turks.
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