Airbus A320 crash in Southern France

An Airbus A320 with 142 passengers and six crewmembers has crashed in Digne region, southern France, media reports say. The jet, which belonged to Germanwings low-cost airline, was flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf.

Airbus A320 crash in Southern France


Not another plane down. Just in on RT. More details on the Spanish branch of RT. actualidad.rt.com... 142 passengers and 6 crew members from initial reports. RIP

a reply to: ragsntatters

WTF is going on these days ???

a reply to: maddy21

I think the airlines may be cutting costs and not maintaining the planes properly in the interest of the bottom line. They're probably also hiring average pilots at a pittance. Weather looks good enough out there. Currently weather is clouds and sun and it's about noon there. Suspect many people on board were young backpackers so am extra saddened that they have been snuffed during their prime

a reply to: ragsntatters

Looking at the flight track it seems to have transpired as follows:

9:30 UTC - 38,000 ft, descent begins just coming past Marseille
9:41 UTC - Aircraft is at 6800 ft over the alps (which are generally higher), telemetry ceases

www.flightradar24.com...

My thoughts are with the families and friends of those involved, we can only hope there are some survivors :-(

Edit to add:

It was approaching 'Tête de l'Estrop' which Wikipedia says has an elevation of 2961m which is just over 9700 feet. So about 300 feet higher than the aircraft was flying. Why was he flying so low? Can we see if he was squawking 7700?

Edit again:

Actually I get notifications from flightradar24 if any aircraft squawks 7700 and there isn't one. I can't remember if there is anywhere we can look to see if they squawked another code?

It seems so odd they would descend like that but I don't know the normal flight plan. Perhaps they were incapacitated and the autopilot became disabled?

a reply to: ragsntatters

it's on france24 now.

a crash in the alps. my thoughts go out to the families.
f.

googletranslate

A plane A320 linking Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed Tuesday morning between Barceloneta and Digne (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). The apparatus of Germanwings company, a subsidiary of Lufthansa , took off at 10 am from Barcelona.

142 passengers were on board by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It disappeared from radar screens an hour after leaving the Catalan city.

a reply to: AgentSmith

Yeah it hit like 38000 then within minutes starts dropping. Thanks for the animation, didn't know past views with telemetry existed. Wonder what could have caused that...a stall? Need to tighten airline maintenance regulations sheezus

Edit: I jump to conclusions, may not have been a maintenance issue now that I look at that graph, but it's all conjecture at this point.

a reply to: ragsntatters

Company that owns this airline is Lufthansa and looking at the reports it's looking likely that something mid-air has happened, no distress call reported at this time.

EDIT: Distress call was recieved however French PM says ''no survivors expected'', must've been bad

originally posted by: maddy21
a reply to: ragsntatters

WTF is going on these days ???

Nothing.


Every year airtravel is expanding.

More planes and more airlines just mean more chance of air accidents.


Its just simple statistics.

My thoughts are with the friends and families who had loved ones on that plane.

This is terrible. Another one...

CdT

a reply to: ragsntatters

Thats terrible!

Did anyone survive?

Wow...that's awful. My thoughts are with all those poor families.

a reply to: ragsntatters

Ah hell...

How many is that since this time last year?

a reply to: maddy21

Air travel is the safest it's ever been. Flying is dangerous and accidents are going to happen no matter how many precautions are taken.

a reply to: andy06shake The french president Hollande has said " expect no survivors " but who really knows at this stage right?

Sad to hear that another plane has crashed . It can't be all good with all the competition going around in the aerospace business to offer cheaper flights .. somewhere you have to cut costs to make flights cheaper . And maintenance could be the difference between a cheap and expensive ticket IMO ?

a reply to: ragsntatters

A stall likely would've hastened the crash. It wouldn't have taken 11 minutes to drop 31,000 feet if the airplane was stalling.

We have no idea whether or not this was a maintenance problem.

Whilst talking of statistics and Air travel it is worth noting that worldwide death tolls from Air travel in 2014 were 4 times more than 2013

Source

originally posted by: ragsntatters
a reply to: maddy21

I think the airlines may be cutting costs and not maintaining the planes properly in the interest of the bottom line. They're probably also hiring average pilots at a pittance. Weather looks good enough out there. Currently weather is clouds and sun and it's about noon there. Suspect many people on board were young backpackers so am extra saddened that they have been snuffed during their prime

It's a brand new airline mate, it's also part of Lufthansa. As a flier with them they are streets ahead of any of the British low cost airlines. Wings really is about as good as it gets budget wise, plus it's Lufthansa. Lufthanse don't crash like this........................... do they?

i watch flights online fairly frequently, i've never seen one deviate over water towards high altitude landmass unnecessarily. it should've taken the flight path indicated, so why did it veer so far off course... something's not right

rip the passengers and crew

www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: Zcustosmorum

EDIT: Distress call was recieved however French PM says ''no survivors expected'', must've been bad

Dutch media website said it crashed in the mountains at 2700 meter , choppers spotted the crashsite.

The French Gendarmerie , the wreck of the device seen from helicopters. The plane of Germanwings is 2700 meters . The site is according to French media therefore very difficult to access.

www.telegraaf.nl...