Nicholas TengUpdated as of 11.30am, 26 March 2015
There is not enough data as of yet for officials to rule out any hypotheses with regard to what caused the fatal accident. One BBC Travel correspondent noted that the fact that there was no mayday or emergency call sent out probably indicates that the pilots were too preoccupied dealing with a serious issue regarding the plane’s mechanics. The source of this fault however, is still unclear as the plane crashed into vast mountain range at high speed, smashing most of it to smithereens.
The New York Times has also reported that there are audio recordings suggesting that one of the pilots left the cock-pit before the sudden descent happened, but was subsequently unable to re-enter the cockpit. From the audio recordings, there was no response to his knocking on the cock-pit door, and he attempted to smash the door down. All the information regarding the audio recordings are still being investigated and it is unclear if this is the complete version of the story.
While we did report earlier that the black box was found, it appears that the memory card containing the vital information regarding the plane’s altitude, speed, location and condition was missing, seemingly destroyed by the impact.
Updated as of 10.00am, 25 March 2015
All 150 people on the flight have been pronounced dead, though the search to recover the bodies will take a few days due to the extremely difficult and tough weather conditions. One of the plane’s black boxes has been found at the crash site and will be taken for examination.
Update as of 12.00am, 25 March 2015
The first signs of debris has been found. Officials fear that there may be no survivors due to the extreme conditions the plane landed in, but nevertheless search operations are still furiously underway. The plane is believed to be carrying 45 Spanish and 67 German nationals.
Updated at 11.27pm
A Germanwings passenger plane flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf has crashed in the mountainous Alps in the South of France. At least 150 people were aboard the flight and rescue operations are currently underway. 400 local members of the community including firemen, emergency search and rescue personnel and gendarmes have been activated to begin the search operation.
BREAKING #GermanWings Here is a photo from helicopter of the crash area /France2 journalists http://t.co/wFg8KTSve2 pic.twitter.com/RnC5gT5w40
— AirLive.net (@airlivenet) March 24, 2015
The plane disappeared from the radar at 11.20am local time, and was believed to have crashed into the isolated area of Meolans-Revel at about 2700m altitude. The plane experienced a severe drop in altitude from 11500m to just 2100m in the span of a few minutes before the crash, but it is still unclear if there was any mechanical failure.
Stay tuned as we bring you live updates.
