BLACK BOX EXAMINED AFTER GERMANWINGS CRASH
Photo: Maxppp/ZUMA
A search and recovery operation continues in the French Alps, as investigators have started examining the black box of the Germanwings flight travelling from Barcelona to Düsseldorf that crashed yesterday with 150 people on board. French officials told reporters that the first findings from the recording devices would be available by the end of the afternoon, Le Figaro reports. Germanwings’ mother company Lufthansa said the crash is “inexplicable” and that the plane was “in perfect condition.”
- Speaking on RTL, France’s Interior Minister appeared to rule out a terrorist attack since the plane had not exploded.
- It now appears that the plane gradually shed height for 18 minutes, instead of the eight minutes initially reported, The Independent writes. But experts are still at a loss to explain why this happened.
- Bernard Chabert, an aircraft specialist, told French radio station Europe 1 that the gradual dive was “likely voluntary” and that this generally happens “when there’s a problem.” Soon after however, as the crew stopped responding on radio, it’s possible there was “nobody conscious inside the cockpit.” He suggested the accident could have been provoked by the explosion of lithium batteries on board. When they catch fire, those batteries release fumes “that can kill in a few seconds,” Chabert said. Such incidents have happened in the past and have caused plane crashes.
- The German town of Haltern am See is mourning the 16 schoolchildren and two teachers who were aboard the doomed flight, returning from a one-week exchange with a school in Barcelona. Families and friends lit candles on the steps outside the school and left messages in memory. “Yesterday we were many. Today we are alone,” one message read. It was “certainly the darkest day in the history of our town,” Haltern’s mayor said.
- The tragedy dominated the front pages of Europe’s newspapers on Wednesday.
