Germanwings Plane Crash

The search operation to recover a Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps yesterday killing all 150 people on board has resumed. Here are the latest updates: 

• New evidence suggests the plane's unexplained descent took at least 18 minutes, not eight
• A Spanish woman who lived in Manchester is believed to have died on the flight
• The Foreign Secretary announced that it is “likely” British nationals were on board
• Witnesses have described the “picture of horror” on the mountainside
• A damaged but “useable” black box has been recovered from the scene
• Most passengers were German, including 16 pupils from the same school
• Other victims were from Spain, Australians, the Netherlands, Turkey, Denmark, Japan and Israel
• Germanwings crew members refused to fly yesterday for personal reasons
• Investigators have not ruled out any cause but terrorism is not considered likely

Grief and disbelief permeated homes and workplaces as far away as Kazakhstan and Australia on Monday night as stories of the 150 victims began to emerge.

a minute ago

Harrowing pictures of the empty arrivals gate at Dusseldorf airport yesterday have emerged, as shocked passengers stared at the gate where the Germanwings passengers had been due to arrive.

Germanwings has not yet issued the full passenger manifest confirming the nationalities of the 150 victims but this is what has been announced by Germanwings and foreign governments so far.

 

67 Germans, confirmed by Germanwings. 

Around 40 Spaniards, based on last names

3 Kazakhs, confirmed by the government 

2 Japanese, confirmed by the government 

2 Colombians, confirmed by the government. 

2 Australians, confirmed by the government 

1 Dutch, confirmed by the government. 

1 Dane, confirmed by the government. 

1 Turk, confirmed by the government. 

1 Israeli, confirmed by the government. 

1 Mexican, probable but unconfirmed

British citizens, 'likely' but unconfirmed

The French military scrambled a Mirage jet fighter to investigate soon after 10.30am, when the pilots had stopped responding by radio but officials have not revealed what the pilot of that plane saw.

Radar logs of the Barcelona to Dusselfdorf flight show that at 10.29am yesterday, the plane was at its cruising height of  28.524 feet over the Mediterranean, our correspondent John Lichfield writes.

At 10.30am it had dropped to 26,453 feet. One minute later, it was at 24,380 feet.

For the next 17 minutes, it shed around 1,000 feet of height a minute before vanishing from radar contact soon after 10.48am. It is believed to have crashed a few minutes later.

The cockpit voice recorder currently being examined is only one of the plane's two black boxes. It records conversations between the pilot and co-pilot and any alarm signals that may have sounded.

The other black-box, the flight data recorder, is still missing. 

An Airbus A320 passenger jet flew into the side of a mountain in the French Alps after skimming the mountain tops in a steep descent that killed all 150 people on board.

French newspaper l'Express reports that five policemen spent the freezing night at the crash site to protect it from members of the public, the press and possible looters.There are fears that two wolf packs living in the area could be attracted to the bodies. 

The German town that lost 16 school students and two teachers flying home from an exchange trip is in mourning today.

Lara Beer,14, said she waited for her best friend Paula at the train station until she gave up waiting and went home.

“Then my parents told me Paula was dead,” she told The Associated Press.

The Joseph Koenig Gymnasium in Haltern was closed today as pupils mourned.

The accident investigation bureau is expected to announce its first findings today at a press conference at 4pm Paris time (3pm in the UK).

Evidence emerged today that the unexplained, gradual dive to destruction of Germanwings Flight 9525 took at least 18 minutes, not eight.

A mother from Manchester and her seven-month-old baby are believed to be among the 150 passengers and crew feared dead after a Germanwings plane crashed in the French Alps.