Wednesday 25 March 2015

Update on Germanwings Crash: Leaders visit Alps site


Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and Mariano Rajoy were briefed on the rescue and thanked the workers. One of the "black box" recorders has been recovered at the site near Digne.

The Airbus A320 - flight 4U 9525 - from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed after an eight-minute rapid descent. Germanwings chief Thomas Winkelmann said 72 of the 144 passengers were German citizens and 35 were Spanish, although the list was being constantly updated. The German victims included 16 pupils returning from an exchange trip.


UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed that three Britons were on board. Other victims were from Australia, Argentina, Iran, Venezuela, the US, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark and Israel.

The plane's cockpit voice recorder - recovered by a helicopter team on Tuesday - was damaged but could still provide information, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said if voices had been recorded the investigation would proceed "fairly quickly". Investigators are still searching for the second "black box" - the flight data recorder.


Reports so far... 

  1. Search and recovery efforts resume in remote terrain in the French Alps after a Germanwings plane crashed on Tuesday with 150 people on board
  2.  Airbus 320 Flight 4U 9525 was travelling between Barcelona and Duesseldorf
  3.  The aircraft's black box voice recorder has been recovered and is being examined in Paris
  4.  Memorial services being held as mourning for the victims begins
  5.  Among the dead are believed to be 72 German nationals and at least 35 Spaniards
  6.  Citizens of the UK, Australia, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Denmark, the Netherlands, the USA and Belgium also among those on board
  7.  French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy are visiting the crash site

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