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Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 (Barcelona - Dusseldorf) crashed on 24 March 2015, coming down in the Alps near Barcelonette France
Aircraft involved is Airbus A320 reg D-AIPX. It was delivered to Lufthansa in 1991 and passed to Germanwings in 2001. It received routine maintenance at DUS the day before the crash (performed by Lufthansa Technik) and had its last major overhaul ( C-Check) in the summer of 2013. Lufthansa have said the plane was in 'perfect' condition.
Circumstances
It is very likely that the aircraft was deliberately crashed by the co-pilot Andreas Lubwitz
As per Germanwings press conference held 1400 on 24th March:
The aircraft flew from DUS to BCN on the morning of the crash
The flight left BCN at 1001 local time, it reached crusing altitude of 38000 at 1045 but remained there for only one minute before beginning a descent which lasted 8 minutes and ended in the crash.
ATC permission was not asked for the descent and it is unclear whether or not the crew were in ATC contact and under what circumstances an emergency was declared.
Subsequent reports suggest there was no communication between the crew and ATC after the aircraft began to descend.
The weather was good at the time of the crash:
Surface weather near where they started the descent:
METAR LFTH 240800Z AUTO 07012KT 9999 NSC 15/08 Q1008
METAR LFTH 240830Z AUTO 07012KT 9999 NSC 15/09 Q1008
METAR LFTH 240900Z AUTO 08016KT 9999 FEW035 SCT130 15/08 Q1008
That's basically unrestricted visibility at the surface.
Posted by Captainmiles Post #156 in this thread
US govt sources say no evidence of terrorism (reported on sky news uk)
Germanwings/Lufthansa official response
Germanwings press conference announced for 1500 local time, to be held in Cologne
Press conference reports: Lufthansa group employees enroute to crash site, families of victims being informed, crisis center set up at DUS airport
New flight number have been announced
4U9440 DUS0645 – 0855BCN EQV
4U9441 BCN0935 – 1155DUS EQV
Relatives of victims have been transported to the crash area by Lufthansa
Lufthansa press conference held at 1330 GMT on 26 March stated that the plane was most likely brought down deliberately by the co-pilot.
Video recording of the press conference (26 March):
In German
In English (simultaneous translation)
Victims
Latest reports are 144 passengers and 6 crew aboard, Spanish government report 45 Spanish nationals, French government reports 0 French nationals, German government reports there are some German victims but numbers not known (German wings press conference reports 67), Sky News UK reports Turkish nationals on board. There were 2 babies, one of the belonging to a woman from Manchester and the other is German, the child of opera singer Maria Radner who was travelling on the flight with her husband.
Two of the victims were Australians - a mother and her adult son from Victoria.
Two victims from Argentina
Three from Great Britain
One Israeli
Two Colombians
One Belgian
One Dutch
Two Iranians
Three Americans
Two Japanese
Three Mexicans
The German victims include 16 pupils and 2 teachers from Joseph Koenig Gymnasium (high school) at Haltern Am See, they were returning from an exchange visit to Spain.
Crew comprised 4 cabin crew and 2 flight deck. The captain had been with Lufthansa group for 10 years and had over 6000 hours on this plane type.
The co-pilot is widely reported to have joined Germanwings straight out of training in 2013 and to have had 630 hours of experience.
French rescue services believe there are no survivors.
Emergency contact numbers
From Germany 0800 1133 5577
From Spain 902 400 012
0049 30 5000 3000
The names of the victims will be published once their families have been informed.
Crash site
The crash site has been identified by helicopters, it is not accessible by road and is around 2 and a half hours walk from the nearest road (reported Sky News UK). It is at an altitude of around 2000m. Search and rescue teams are en-route. There may be an avalanche risk which could hamper rescue efforts. Rescuers are assembling at Seyne-Les-Alpes.
Sky news UK are reporting that a helicopter has landed near the crash site. They have confirmed no survivors and have reported the largest piece of debris to be about car sized. The debris field is about 200 square meters in size. See also http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24557269-post183.html
Investigation - confirmed information
Large numbers of French investigators are on site, efforts have been made to secure the site against outside interference.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) has been recovered and taken for investigation at French BEA. It is damaged but functional. Voices can be heard on the recording but it is unclear if they are those of the flight crew.
BEA is working in cooperation with German BFU (Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung), Airbus and CFM.
The aircraft was complete until impact - there was no midair breakup
"Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France"
New York Times reports that one of the two pilots was locked out of the cockpit during the descent: “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.” http://nyti.ms/1HC7g9i
French prosecuters believe that the crash was caused by the deliberate actions of the co-pilot, he is thought to have locked the captain out of the cockpit and then to have deliberately crashed the aircraft.
Video of cockpit operation and manual override switch to block door from being opened externally. From The Guardian.
A locked door is opened by a flight crew inside the cockpit but can also be unlocked by cabin crew entering a keycode from the outside. Crew inside the cockpit can manually override it to keep a door locked for up to five minutes.
On 6 May 2015, the BEA released its preliminary report.
Reliable Sources
AV Herald page on the crash.
FlightRadar24 flight path map
flightware tracking log
BBC News "What we know so far"
Germanwings / 4U 9525 A320 Alpine plane crash 24 Mar 2015
#91
Join Date: Mar 2013
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The europe1 link at the start of the thread:
"Simplement, le survol en hélicoptère a permis de voir la carcasse de l'avion et quelques corps autour de l'avion."
That is Alain Vidalies, the French Secretary of State for Transport. They're talking very much about a single plane - maybe impact damaged, but not to teh extent that they're talking about debris rather than a recognisable aircraft.
"Simplement, le survol en hélicoptère a permis de voir la carcasse de l'avion et quelques corps autour de l'avion."
That is Alain Vidalies, the French Secretary of State for Transport. They're talking very much about a single plane - maybe impact damaged, but not to teh extent that they're talking about debris rather than a recognisable aircraft.
#92
#93
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#94
Join Date: May 2013
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So when it shows 10:47am on crash reports, that corresponds to 5:47am Eastern Time.
And the data on Flightaware stops at 5:35 Eastern Time.
#95
Join Date: May 2010
Programs: M&M FTL; BAEC Bronze
Posts: 1,043
Lufthansa have updated their Facebook page as a mark of respect to show a black background, and changed their logo to be black.
https://www.facebook.com/lufthansa
https://www.facebook.com/lufthansa
#96
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Malta
Programs: LH HON, BA Gold, Bonvoy LT Titanium
Posts: 416
Lufthansa just cancelled a cocktail reception in Madrid to introduce the new head of sales for Spain.
CANCELACION EVENTO 24 de Marzo, Hotel AC Santo Mauro, Madrid
Lufthansa lamenta la cancelación del evento previsto para este
martes, 24 de Marzo de 2015 en el Hotel AC Santo Mauro de Madrid.
Lamentamos los inconvenientes y agradecemos su comprensión.
Lufthansa, Líneas Aéreas Alemanas
CANCELACION EVENTO 24 de Marzo, Hotel AC Santo Mauro, Madrid
Lufthansa lamenta la cancelación del evento previsto para este
martes, 24 de Marzo de 2015 en el Hotel AC Santo Mauro de Madrid.
Lamentamos los inconvenientes y agradecemos su comprensión.
Lufthansa, Líneas Aéreas Alemanas
#97
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: India
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Flightaware data has lags over Atlantic, but is pretty real-time over land. Wonder why the inconsistency.
#100
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: UK
Programs: I go wherever the content takes me.
Posts: 5,698
This graphic suggests the aircraft was a constant speed through the dive, not slowing: https://fr.flightaware.com/live/flig.../EDDL/tracklog
The flightradar page also suggests the aircraft finally reached 0 feet altitude, when it did not.
The flightradar page also suggests the aircraft finally reached 0 feet altitude, when it did not.
The "dive" does seem to be at a pretty constant rate, though.
#101
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Is the flight aware data guaranteed to be accurate? IIRC this wouldn't be the first time we've been guessing accident causes based on innacurate data.
Very sad news anyway, poor sods.
Spanish gov press conference now live on Sky UK
Very sad news anyway, poor sods.
Spanish gov press conference now live on Sky UK
#102
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Posts: 6,201
Is there anything we know so far that is inconsistent with misleading and/or misinterpreted airspeed or altitude readings, e.g., as a result of pitot tube failure?
#103
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On another note, not to sound insensitive, but since the wreckage is found so quickly and in daylight, I really hope the investigation for this can be carried out quickly for once. We've had too many loose threads this year.
#105
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Some additional information which may be of interest, although I doubt it is directly relevant to what happened today.
The airframe (D-AIPX) was previously involved in an incident (as DLH9FW) where it squawked 7700 in December 2012. (source: http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/i...p?topic=7363.0 ). The flight was Hamburg to Zurich. A tweet from the time says "what happend? 7700 ovr FRA, descend, then climb to FL390 and disappeared ovr swiss" (source: https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=DLH9FW&src=typd )
This could have been a medical diversion or any number of other technical issues. I imagine that for an aircraft of this age it would not be unusual for it to have been involved in other incidents.
The airframe (D-AIPX) was previously involved in an incident (as DLH9FW) where it squawked 7700 in December 2012. (source: http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/i...p?topic=7363.0 ). The flight was Hamburg to Zurich. A tweet from the time says "what happend? 7700 ovr FRA, descend, then climb to FL390 and disappeared ovr swiss" (source: https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=DLH9FW&src=typd )
This could have been a medical diversion or any number of other technical issues. I imagine that for an aircraft of this age it would not be unusual for it to have been involved in other incidents.