German Plane Crashes in French Alps - WSJ

Plane was flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf; some 150 passengers and crew feared dead

An Airbus A320 flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf with 150 passengers and crew on board crashed in a remote, hard-to-reach region of the French Alps on Tuesday, in the worst air disaster in France in more than three decades.

The flight operated by Germanwings, a budget airline whose parent company is Deutsche Lufthansa AG, went down near Méolans-Revel, a small village of 300 surrounded by steep mountains. “The conditions of the accident suggest there are no survivors,” French President François Hollande said in a brief televised address.

Flight 9525 reached an altitude of 38,000 feet at 10:45 a.m., or 44 minutes after takeoff, and a minute later began an eight-minute descent before crashing, Germanwings Chief Executive Thomas Winkelmann said. The airline said it is not sure why the plane began to fly at a lower altitude and air traffic control had not authorized a descent, a Germanwings official said.

Air-traffic authorities based in Aix-en-Provence tried to make contact several times with cockpit crew when they noticed the plane dipped below cruising altitude, saidRoger Rousseau, the secretary general for the SNCTA union of air-traffic controllers.  Read More at  WSJ

• German Plane Crashes in French Alps

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