Germanwings Airbus A320 goes down in the alps. 150 dead.
Copyright Stefan Slegenthaler
24th March 2015
A Germanwings Airbus A320 has crashed in the French alps. All 150 on board including flight crew and 16 school children are believed to have died in the crash. The flight was operating a scheduled Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany route.
It made a Mayday call shortly after reaching its cruising altitude after which it descended from 32,000 feet to 6000 feet in a span of 8 minutes. French radar lost contact with the aircraft at 10:30 AM local time.
Search and Rescue have based themselves in a small hamlet with access to an aerodrome a few miles from the crash site. The place the airplane went down is an alpine stretch known for skiing and hiking. Search and Rescue are expecting weather and snow and have said the first bodies will be airlifted only on Wednesday.
Germanwings is Lufthansa’s low cost carrier meant to compete with European low costs carriers like Ryan Air and Easy Jet. The Airbus A320 that crashed has been in service with Lufthansa since 1991. The Captain of the aircraft reported had 6000 hours of experience on this aircraft type.
This is indeed a sad day for Commercial Aviation.
