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24 Mar, 2015 10:44 27 Mar, 2015 12:54

Live: Germanwings Airbus crash updates

A Germanwings Airbus A320 en route to Dusseldorf from Barcelona has crashed in the French Alps near Digne on Tuesday morning.

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1157: The BBC also reported that prosecutors found a torn-up sick note that signed Lubitz off work on the day of the Alps crash.

"Alps crash co-pilot Andreas Lubitz hid the details of an existing illness from his employers, German prosecutors say. Duesseldorf prosecutors did not say what illness Mr Lubitz had."

Read more: Germanwings co-pilot hid illness from employers

1150: AP also reported that German prosecutors said there was no evidence of a political or religious motive to his actions, and no suicide note was found


1145: According to the Associated Press, Andreas Lubitz hid details of an existing illness from his employers.


0920: AFP have posted pictures of investigators working on the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320. Meanwhile, aviation consultant Gideon Ewers has questioned the French prosecutors “speculative” assertions in Thursday’s press conference. "I’m saying we have an incomplete picture. It ridiculous to make these accusations at this stage of an investigation," he told Sky, adding information should only have been given after a complete technical investigation.


0833: Investigators are focusing on Lubitz's "personal, family and professional environment" to find out why he decided to crash the plane. According to the German daily Bild, he was going through a "personal life crisis", while German newspaper Der Spiegel said he had taken a break in training because of "burnout-syndrome" six years ago. "Burn-out syndrome" is a psychological term that involves long-term exhaustion and diminished interest in work and is generally considered to be caused to chronic occupational stress.

As mentioned earlier, some experts have suggested that if the cause of his suicide was found to be work-related, the airline could be responsible for the compensation of the victims.

Read more: Police search Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz's home

0827: The French Ministry of the Interior has published some photos of the rescue operations via its twitter account:



0814: Here you can see a video of how the locks on access to the cockpit door functions. Though there is a code that may be punched in, this can be overriden from inside the cockpit:


0800: Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps. We'll keep you up-to-date with the latest developments.

---Friday, 27 March---

1653: The German foreign ministry has updated the number of German nationals who died to 75. Previously, it was thought 72 Germans had lost their lives.

1608: White House spokesman Josh Earnest, described reports of the co-pilot deliberately crashing the plane as "chilling".

"Right now as it stands, there is no nexus to terrorism," he told CNN. "But that does leave the window open because there is an ongoing investigation."

1530: Flight 4U9525 isn't the first case in which a pilots is expected to have deliberately crashed a plane.

In 1999, Egypt Air Flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the accident was deliberately caused by the relief officer, though the conclusion was heavily disputed by Egyptian authorities.

In 1997, SilkAir Flight 185 from Jakarta to Singapore crashed into the Musi River near Palembang in southern Sumatra, killing all 97 passengers and seven crew members on board. The NTSB found the crash was the result of deliberate flight control input by the pilot, while Indonesian authorities maintained the cause of crash could not be determined because of inconclusive evidence.

All 44 people aboard Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 were killed in similar circumstances in 1994, while the 33 passengers and crew members aboard LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 lost their lives when the plane was deliberately crashed in 2013.

In 1982, Japan Airlines Flight 350 suffered a similar fate when crashing upon approach at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, though 142 of the 166 people on board survived.

1526: Matthias Gebauer, a reported for popular German newspaper Der Spiegel, reported that friends of Lubitz said he suffered from burnout or depression in 2009 and took time out from his pilot training. Earlier this afternoon, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr revealed that Lubitz had interrupted his training but could not shed light on the reasons.


1500: Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, said there was no suspicion of the co-pilot being linked with terrorism groups, nor did he have any suspicious background. "According to the information we currently have, there was no such background."

1450: According to James Healy-Pratt, a qualified pilot and aviation lawyer, interviewed by the Daily Telegraph, Germanwings could be held liable for compensation if pilot suicide was to be found as cause of death.

"If pilot suicide is found to be the cause of Germanwings, then we strongly believe that the airline will be full liable for unlimited compensation, as discussed earlier, to the families.

"This is because the airline is responsible for the actions of its pilots, as well as not having in place stringent cockpit security measures that US airlines (following 9/11) and others such as El Al, have had in place for more than a decade.

"The awful truth, if pilot suicide is the cause, is that this was a fully preventable tragedy.

1436: “We can only speculate what might have been the motivation of the co-pilot," Spohr said.

"In a company that prides itself on its safety record, this is a shock. We select cockpit personnel carefully.”

1429: Despite the disaster, Lufthansa has full confidence in its training and pilot screening procedures, Spohr said. He added that Lubitz’s training was interrupted at some point and that Lufthansa will have to investigate the matter further.

1426: Spohr added that neither Germanwings nor Lufthansa have protocols requiring a second member of the flight crew to be in the cockpit if one of the pilots leaves, as European regulations do not require it. He went on to add that, to his knowledge, other European airlines do not have such protocols, unlike in the US, where a member of the flight crew is required to be in the cockpit if one of the pilots leaves.

1422: Speaking at a press conference earlier this afternoon, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr focused on the issue of cockpit safety. “What has happened here is a tragic individual event,” he said. “We are trying to deal with an enigma.” No systems could prevent such an event, he added.

1332: Germanwings has said it was "shaken" by the findings of Marseille prosecutor, adding that its thoughts were with the families of the victims. The airline said it will hold a press conference just after 1330 GMT. Meanwhile, the German transport minister, speaking at a press conference in Berlin, describes the Marseille revelations as shocking.


1305: Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was 28-year-old and resided in the small town of Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate, reports the Guardian.

A first officer, Lubitz had been flying for Germanwings since September 2013 after being trained with the airline’s parent company Lufthansa in Bremen. He had clocked up a total of 630 hours in the air.

1252: This graphic from website flightradar24 appears to show that the auto-pilot setting was manually switched from 38,000 feet to 96 feet within a couple of seconds just before the crash. "Between 09:30:52 and 09:30:55 the autopilot was changed from 38,000 feet to 100 feet and 9 seconds later the aircraft started to descend, probably with the "open descent" autopilot setting," the website reports.


1224: Prosecutor added that "the relations of the pilots will be questioned by the German authorities". "The families are in a state of shock and find it hard to believe," he said.

"I tried to respond as best I could. Some were too technical, but everything else I answered as I have to you.

"There is a clear independent fault, that's for sure. Whether the company employing him is at fault is another question and one that does not concern me today."

1220: Marseille Prosecutor says the plane hit the mountain at 700km per hour and all on board died instantly.

1216: "There was no contact between neither the pilot nor the co-pilot during the last eight minutes of the flight," says Robin.

1209: Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said investigators believe the co-pilot refused to open the door to the pilot and he took the plane down and that he used the keys of the monitoring system to speed up the descent said.

“The intention was to destroy this plane,” Robin said.

The pilot was not known as a terrorist and Robin declined to call his action a suicide.

“He was breathing normally, he did not utter a single word” after the pilot left the cabin, he added.

“We do not have sentiment that there was panic (in cockpit) as he was breathing normally.”

“I think he refused to open the door and turned the button to get down the plane. It was a voluntary action on the part of the co-pilot... He is not known as a terrorist, absolutely not.”

“He had no reason to disable contact with other planes,we could hear the cries minutes before the plane crashed.”

1206: There was no one else in the cabin and the second black box corresponds to the details of the aircraft, the prosecutor says. The co-pilot has been named as Andreas Lubitz.

1201: Here's what Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin has had to say at his press conference.

"We heard the captain ask the co-pilot to take control, then we hear the noise of a seat that goes back and a door open, we can assume he went to relieve himself.

"The co-pilot was alone. It is at this moment that the co-pilot manipulates the buttons of flight monitoring system to action the descent of the plane.

"The action of this altitude can only be deliberate. We hear the captain then speaks via an interphone to speak to the co-pilot, no response of co-pilot, he taps on door, no response from the co-pilot, all we can hear is the sound of breathing, until impact suggesting the co-pilot was alive until impact.

"Air traffic control tried to get through via 7700 but couldn't get through. Air traffic control even tried to contact other planes to try and contact the plane, but no response.

"Alarms sounded to signal to crew the proximity of the ground, then we hear banging of someone trying to break down the door

"The pull up alarms to pull the plane up went off.

"Just before the final impact one can heard what appears to be the first impact of the plane on a mountain top.

"There was no message of distress type or mayday recevied by air traffic control, and no response to all the air traffic controllers.

1156: Germanwings copilot said to have caused crash, according to the French public prosecutor of Marseille Brice Robin.

1136:The German prosecutor's office confirms that one of the pilots was outside the cockpit although they do not know which one, according to a New York Times report.

1124: Germanwings has said on its Twitter account that it will not reveal the identities of the victims:

0938: Germanwings said they "can neither confirm nor deny reports in NYT one pilot left the cockpit and wasn't able to get back in."

0927: Germanwings is expected to hold a press conference at 13:30 London time.

0920: The passengers on the Vueling flight have all disembarked and been moved to other flights, according to a statement from Vueling.

Read more: Vueling aircraft forced to make an emergency landing at El Prat airport

0856: Although unrelated, reports have just surfaced in Spain that a Vueling airplane leaving the El Prat airport in Barcelona has made an emergency landing shortly after take-off due to "the smell of something burning". This was the same departure point for the Germanwings plane involved in the crash on Tuesday. Vueling is IAG's low-cost carrier in Spain.

0740: One of the pilots was reported to have been outside the cockpit at the time of the crash, according to The New York Times. However, a Lufthansa spokesperson said that the airline had no information that confirmed the story and stated that the company did not want to engage in speculation. Read the full story here.

0738: Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps. We'll keep you up-to-date with the latest developments.

---Thursday, 26 March---

1555: Hollande described the event as a "terrible catastrophe" before adding that "everything will be done to find, identify and hand back to the families the bodies of their loved ones."

1549: French president Francois Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy are holding a press conference. Hollande: "There was no possibility to save anyone"

1521: AP news agency reported that the Spanish government has raised the number of Spanish victims from 49 to "at least 51", contradicting earlier reports indicating that 35 Spanish citizens had died in the crash. Meanwhile, a media briefing at Le Bourget is due to start within the next 20-30 minutes, according to French media.

1517: The US state department has confirmed the death of two Americans in the crash and added it was continuing to investigate whether other US citizens were on board the Germanwings flight.


1509: According to the New York Times, French investigators have not been able to retrieve any data from the cockpit voice recorder.

"The inquiry has been hampered further, an official said, by the discovery that the second black box, which was found on Wednesday, was severely damaged, and its memory card dislodged and missing," the newspaper reported.

1504: The list of victims is constantly being updated, here's what we know so far as far as their nationalities are concerned.
72 people on the plane were from Germany
35 were Spanish
Three Britons are among the victims
Two victims each were from Australia, Argentina, Iran and Venezuela
The Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Belgium and Israel all had one citizen on board.

1417: The second black box has been found severely damaged, according to the aviation site AirLive.net.

1405: Lufthansa's vice president is in a meeting with some of the relatives of the crash victims. The airline said that facilitating the conditions of the victims' relatives and providing psychological support was the top priority at the moment.

1357: France’s Bureau of Investigation and Analysis has confirmed its investigators are hoping to release data from the cockpit voice recorder later this afternoon.

1355: French president Francois Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Spain's prime minister have arrived on the site of the crash.


1235: Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron paid tribute to the victims.

"The Foreign Office is working urgently to establish whether any further British nationals were among those on board," he said.

"It is heart-breaking to hear about the schoolchildren, the babies, the families whose lives have been brought to an end."

1209: Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that "according to the latest information there is no hard evidence that the crash was intentionally brought about by third parties".

1200: French investigators have released pictures of the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of Germanwings flight 4U9525. Earlier on Wednesday, Brice Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, confirmed that the second black box was still to be recovered.

Citing aviation industry experts, the Wall Street Journal added that cockpit voice recorders are designed to withstand impact of 3,400 times the force of gravity.


1152: Germanwings CEO said the plane victims included 72 German citizens, 35 Spaniards and two Americans, AP said.

1145: Lufthansa's CEO Carsten Spohr said the crash was "inexplicable". “It is inexplicable this could happen to a plane free of technical problems and with an experienced, Lufthansa-trained pilot,” he told journalists in Frankfurt. Meanwhile, French transport minister, Alain Vidalies said that if voices have been recorded by the cockpit voice recorder, the investigation would proceed “fairly quickly.”

“After that, if we have to analyse the sounds, that’s a job that will take several weeks, but it’s a job that can offer us some explanations,” he told a French radio station.

1134: The number of Spanish victims has risen to 49, according to Spanish Secretary of State of Security, Francisco Martínez. He said the data was based on information received from the families of the victims.

1124: A spokesman for the French air force said that it scrambled a Mirage fighter jet to the area when the Germanwings flight lost contact, but it arrived too late to help and could not locate the site of the crash, AP reports.

1121: The latest report on the nationalities of the victims indicates there were 67 Germans among the people on board and an as yet unspecified number of Spaniards. The government said there were 45 people Spanish-sounding surnames but it was still trying to confirm the exact number. Three British and three Kazakhs citizens are thought to have been on board, along with two Japanese, two Colombians, two Australians, one Israeli, one Dutch and one Dane. The Mexican government said it was still trying to confirm whether a Mexican citizen was among the victims.

1109: Brice Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, warned the investigation into the crash of flight 4U 9525 would take weeks.

“The priority on the ground is to identify the bodies,” he said.

“We owe that to the families of the victims. But it will not be done in five minutes. It is going to take a number of weeks and I think everyone should be aware that we are talking about a long time.”

He added that the black box was damaged and that the second flight recorder was yet to be recovered.

"We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart, the bodies are in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage,” he said.

1058: According to BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler, Germanwings has offered to fly the students' family members to France but so far no-one has taken them up on the offer.

1053: Citing officials sources from each of the countries, AFP reported that victims are also feared from Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Denmark, Mexico.

1049: It has emerged that Dalkurd FF, a Swedish third division football team was meant to be on the plane, but changed their minds at the last moment and boarded a different flight instead. The club has offered condolences to the relatives of the victims via its official Twitter account.


1046: According to Sky News, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin has confirmed that French, Spanish and German authorities have formally requested information about the jet's maintenance.

1043: A Germanwings spokesperson said this morning's Barcelona to Dusseldorf flight changed route as well as flight number.

1040: Ulrich Wessel, the principal of Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium, said the school had lost "16 cheerful young people" and teachers in the crash. "This is a tragedy that makes you speechless," he said. "Our condolences and sympathy goes to the parents who have lost their beloved sons and daughters."

1021: Here's what UKUlrich Wessel, principal of Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium, told a press conference that last Tuesday the school "saw off 16 cheerful young people" and teachers on an exchange trip, similar visits having taken place for "a number of years".
"This is a tragedy that makes you speechless," he said. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had to say on the three British citizens believed to be among the victims.

"We currently believe that three British people have been killed in this tragedy, but we cannot rule out the possibility that there are further British people involved," he said.

"The level of information on the flight manifest doesn't allow us to rule out that possibility until we've completed some further checks.We are in contact with the families of those known to have been killed."

1015: The UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond added that he could "not rule out" that more British citizens were on board Germanwings flight 4U9525. Meanwhile, passengers at Dusseldorf airport, the plane's intended destination, have held a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of the crash exactly 24 hours after the accident.


1007: UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said at least three British citizens are believed to be among the victims.

1004: According to AP, the French interior ministry spokesman Paul-Henry Brandet said reaching the area of the crash has been made harder by overnight rain and snow, which has made the rocky ravine of the crash site more slippery,

0932: Although investigations continue, several of the nationalities of the 150 victims who died in the crash have been confirmed. Most of them were Germans and Spaniards, but several other nationalities have been identified. So far there is no confirmation of British nationals having been on board the flight, though, as mentioned earlier, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond admitted that it was “sadly likely”. Read more: The list of nationalities confirmed to have passed away on the Germanwings flight

0851: The actual cause of the accident remains unclear and some aviation experts have said that it could take up to a year in order to reach a reliable conclusion. The main focus is on the sudden, 8-minute drop in the plane from an altitude of 38,000ft to 6,000ft where it then disappeared from the radar. The airplane's black box has been found and, though damaged, the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that it can be used to find information. Cazeneuve did tell RTL radio that while they are investigating all possible causes, he did not think that a terrorist attack was the most likely scenario.

0846: Investigators are focusing on the task of identifying the bodies. They are studying the creation of a path that would be approximately seven km long in order to facilitate access to the site. They also plan to set up a place for the relatives, accompanied by psychologists, to be able to identify the victims.

0824: As authorities continue to work on identifying the victims, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was "sadly likely" that some British nationals were on board. One is thought to be Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio, a 37 year-old living in Manchester who was flying with her seven-month-old son Julian after attending a family funeral in her hometown, Jaca in the Pyrenees.

0821: Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr once again offered his condolences to the families of the victims via Twitter on Wednesday:


Spohr added that the both Lufthansa and their low-cost airline Germanwings will do “everything in our power” to help and that they plan on enabling the relatives of the victims to grieve on the site “as soon as possible”.

0806: On Tuesday evening a video with the first images of the plane's debris circulated in the French press:

0803: Authorities have indicated that they expect a long process in order to identify the victims. Spain has offered its help to the French authorities in order to speed up the process and have already collected DNA from the families of the victims that were present at the Pratt airport in Barcelona where the flight departed.

0745: Rescue operations have resumed on Wednesday morning with the effort focused on identifying the victims involved in the crash. Read more: Germanwings Airbus A320 recovery operation to resume.

0730: Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps. We'll keep you up-to-date with the latest developments.

---Wednesday, 25 March---

1647: French Interior Minister says the black box from the crashed Germanwings plane in the French Alps has been found, Reuters reports.

1630: Bodo Klimpe, the mayor of Haltern in Germany said 16 Year 10 students from the Joseph-Koenig School were returning home after spending just under a week in Spain. He said that parents arrived at school "expecting the worst" when after not being able to make telephone contact. "We are getting support from all sorts of authorities and we have a number of people well trained in counselling," he added. The sympathy is overwhelming."

1626: French police has tweeted a picture showing the area in which research is currently being carried out. The map also shows the no-fly zone that has been implemented over the site in a bid to aid the operation.


1620: Airbus' president Tom Enders is about to fly over the crash site in a helicopter from Marseilles, according to reports by BBC's Chris Bockman.

1616: Passengers from four different countrieswere on board flight 4U9525. According to initial reports, almost 50% of them were Germans, 42 Spanish, two Turkish and one Belgian.

1613: Belgium's authorities have confirmed that a Belgian citizen was on board the Germanwings flight.

1607: Flight 4U9525 is the second Airbus A320 to crash in less than four months, after Air Asia flight 8501 crashed in the Java Sea in December 2014 on its way to Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya.

LIVE televised feed, from France24:

1601: Pictures posted by local newspaper La Provence, indicate debris are scattered over a very vast area.


1554: The schoolchildren thought to have been on board are from Haltern am See in northern Germany, "All the signs point to them being on board the plane" when it crashed, said a spokesman for the local authorities.

1552: "There were 16 children and two teachers who had spent a week here, poor things. The children were aged about 15," Marti Pujol, mayor of the village of Llinars de Valles near Barcelona, was quoted as saying by AFP. Along with the teachers, the kids left for Barcelona airport on Tuesday morning, he said, though he could not confirm that they had boarded the flight.

1546: Debris from flight 4U9525 appear to be scattered on a vast area


1535: The White House says US officials have offered their assistance to French, German and Spanish officials. In a statement, US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said for the time being there was no indication the crash was the result of terrorism.

1527: Here's what we know and what we do not know about the crash of flight 4U9525.

1522: Germanwings flight 4U9525 is Lufthansa's first fatal crash since 1993, when two people were killed as flight 2904 crash-landed in Warsaw.

1509: Euronews news agency reported that only one of the helicopters has landed on the exact spot of the accident, while other helicopters are having trouble reaching the area due to weather conditions

1508: According to Reuters, French police at the crash site said it would take days to recover the bodies of those on board due to difficult terrain.

1459: "The plane is disintegrated," council official Gilbert Sauvan was quoted as saying by Les Echos newspaper. "The largest debris is the size of a car".

1456: The first pictures of the crash site are beginning to emerge.

1441: AP reports that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said a helicopter has landed next to the wreckage but found no survivors.

1440: Sixteen schoolchildren and two teachers are believed to have been on the aircraft, a spokeswoman for the German town of Haltern am See has said. "We don't have any official confirmation yet," she said, but German local media that the children are from the Joseph Koenig school, adding the building has been closed and students sent home.

1434: "We heard a plane passing at a very low altitude but we didn't see it and it was strange as there's not a route that flies at that altitude there," Michel Suhubiette, a mountain guide based in Digne, was quoted as saying by French newspaper La Provence.

1430: French police and rescue teams are on the site of the crash and have confirmed that there are no survivors.

1423: Winkelmann added that the plane descended for eight minutes before crashing and that 67 Germans are believed to have been on board.

1418: Speaking at a press conference,Thomas Winkelmann, chief executive of Germanwings, said:

- Contact between the plane and French air traffic controllers broke off at 10:53 (9:53 GMT) at an altitude of approx 6,000ft, before the plane crashed.

- Lufthansa ground staff conducted the last routine check and inspection of the aircraft took place on 23 March in Dusseldorf.

- The last regular inspection on the plane was carried out in summer 2013.

- The captain had over 10 years of experience with Lufthansa and Germanwings, and more than 6,000 hours of flying Airbus models.

- A list of passengers will not be released immediately, to protect the relatives of the victims.

1409: According to German's Bild newspaper, a group of schoolchildren may have been on board the flight. The students were making their way back from a foreign exchange trip.

1352: A Germanwings official has confirmed that the aircraft's crew did not send a distress call before it crashed. This has led to theories that the plane suffered a technical fault or a mid-air collision which perhaps resulted in a loss of cabin pressure.

1350: Lufthansa has provided a toll-free number, 0800 11 33 55 77 or 900 808 890 from Spain, for all the families of the passengers involved to call for assistance.

1341: Aviation reporters say flight 4U9525 plunged at an unusually fast rate of 5,000 feet per minute before crashing.

1330: French interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet has said he expected the search and recovery operation to be "extremely long and extremely difficult'' due to the remoteness of the crash site. Crash recovery teams were using helicopters to access the high-altitude site.

1312: “There are no victims from France, although that is not totally sure”, said Hollande.

1306: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to make a statement about the incident at 13:30 GMT.

1249: French president Francois Hollande said the victims of the crash were most likely from Spain, Germany and Turkey.

1246: Reports in Spain suggest that while 45 passengers had a Spanish surname, the number of Spanish nationals on the plane was 42.

1243: A hotel worker in Digne, the closest town to the suspected crash site, was quoted as saying by BBC Radio 5 live the plane was flying "very low".

1234: Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has said in a news conference that he has already spoken with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as with the Spanish King who was in France, Catalonia's regional leader Artur Mas and his main opposition leader socialist Pedro Sánchez.

1227: Reports from Spain indicate 45 of the passengers on board were Spanish and Barcelona airport has set up a room in Terminal 2 for family members, according to officials in Catalonia.

1212: German air safety experts are on the way to the crash site, according to Reuters.

1210: According to French satellite channel BFMTV, Germanwings is due to hold a news conference at 14:00 GMT at Cologne-Bonn airport

1200: Rescuers are now understood to be taking bodies of victims to an emergency morgue set up in a village not far from the site of the crash, according to the Daily Mirror's chief reporter Andy Lines. He added that the crash looked to have happened in the proximity of a ski slope.


1146: French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet says debris from the crash of an Airbus A320 have been located and the plane crashed at 2,000 meters altitude in the Alps, near the town of Barcelonnette, about 100 km north of Nice. He told BFM television that he expected "an extremely long and extremely difficult" search and rescue operation because of the area's remoteness.

1140: Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said on Twitter that the cause of the crash was still unknown. "We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U9525," he said. "My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors.“

1134: Lufthansa shares were down 4.67% to €13.12, while Airbus shares were down 2.2% to €58.52.

1129: The plane made a distress call at 09:47 GMT then disappeared off the radar at around 10:20 GMT and French president Francois Hollande has confirmed the authorities expect to find "no survivors".

He added the crash happened in “an area that was very difficult to access” and did not know whether any homes had been affected on the ground.

“Solidarity is our first sentiment at this moment,” he said.

1125: The German air traffic control has confirmed the plane has crashed, while the French transport minister said a distress call was received by air traffic control at 09:47 UCT (09:47 GMT). According to reports, search and rescue teams are heading to the crash site at Méolans-Revel in the French Alps.

Meanwhile, the altitude and speed graphs of flight 4U9525 suggest the plane entered a steep but constant descent before crashing.

1059: According to reports from AFP, flight 4U9525 lost contact when flying at an altitude of 6800 feet altitude. The flight, operated by Lufthansa-owned Germanwings was carrying 148 passengers, including six crew members. The plane was 24 years old and had been with the Lufthansa since 1991, according to online database airfleets.net


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