French air investigators are urgently examining a black box cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Germanwings Airbus A-320 to try to solve the mystery of why the aircraft crashed into a mountain in the southern Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
Investigators are puzzled as to why the crew did not send out a mayday or distress signal as flight U49525 rapidly lost altitude for eight minutes, or why the pilot did not change course to avoid smashing into a rocky ravine at around 430mph (700kmh).
In the last 10 minutes of the flight there was total radio silence from the crew of the Barcelona–Düsseldorf flight operated by Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary.
Tuesday’s crash happened around 11am local time in calm weather. Unverified information from plane-tracking websites appeared to rule out an explosion or a mid-air stall, both of which would cause a much faster descent. Experts said planes such as the Airbus would be able to glide for some distance in the case of total engine failure.
David Learmount, the operations and safety editor of Flightglobal, said on Twitter: “German-operated A320s do not crash in the cruise. Not these days. This one is weird.
The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said a helicopter crew had landed near the crash site and found no survivors. Aerial photos showed the plane was, in the words of one official, “pulverised”. The largest piece of wreckage was little more than the size of a small car.
As the CVR was being analysed, Pierre-Henri Brandet, a spokesman for the French interior ministry in Seyne-les-Alpes, said the search for bodies and a second black box on the isolated, rocky site had been called off for the evening and would resume at dawn.
Live Germanwings search and recovery at crash site suspended overnight – live updates
Debris is located as French prime minister, Manuel Valls, says he fears up to 150 people have been killed
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Among the dead passengers were two babies, and 16 German school pupils returning from an exchange trip to Spain with their two teachers.
Christophe Castaner, a Socialist party MP, was one of the first to fly over the barren high altitude crash site and described a scene of horror.
“It’s a sharp ridge and steep slope that is difficult to access. We have seen the catastrophe and terrible things. It was clear the victims were there in the midst of the destroyed aircraft.
“We saw women, men, children, and babies. Yes, we saw babies,” the visibly shocked Castaner told journalists.
Jean-Louis Bietrix, a mountain guide who accompanied the first emergency services up the mountain, said there was nothing left of the plane.
“There’s debris, but you have to look closely to see things. It’s like the plane has totally disappeared,” he said.
The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the crash site was “a picture of horror. The grief of the families and friends is immeasurable. We must now stand together. We are united in our great grief.”
The crash site can only be accessed after a three-hour walk from the nearest road.
It is the worst air accident in France since 345 people were killed when a Turkish Airlines DC10 crashed near Paris in 1974. In 2000 an Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in July 2000, killing all 100 German passengers, nine crew and four people on the ground.
Valls said “no hypothesis” could be ruled out about the cause of the tragedy.
Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, said the black box had been sent to the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA), the French air accident investigation authority, for “immediate examination”.
He added that the crash zone had been secured and that a criminal investigation team would arrive to collect evidence on Wednesday
The dead, including two pilots and four cabin crew, are believed to include 45 Spanish and 67 German nationals. The French president, François Hollande, also spoke of a Turkish national among the victimsAngela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, who plans to travel to the crash site on Wednesday, said the crash had plunged Germany, France and Spain into “deep mourning
Although Investigation has suspended till tomorrow due to dark clouds, and very high level of snow.
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