150 people have died after Germanwings flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed in the French Alps. Lufthansa vice-president Heike Birlenbach said the company is treating the crash as an accident, but French prime minister Manual Valls said “no hypothesis” could be ruled out.
There were 144 passengers, including two infants and 16 German schoolchildren, and six crew on board. It is believed that there were 67 Germans and 45 Spanish on board.
An unexplained descent lasting eight minutes began about 45 minutes into the flight. The plane dropped from its cruising altitude of 38,000ft to 6,000ft. Contact was lost at 10.53am, when the plane was at 6,000ft.
The crash site is in the commune of Méolans-Revel, an isolated area of small villages and hamlets that are difficult to reach. Debris is scattered over an area of 0.75 sq miles (2 sq km), according to French search and rescue officials.
Among those killed was opera singer Oleg Bryjak, Deutsche Oper Am Rhein director Christoph Meyer has told the Associated Press. Meyer said Bryjak was returning to Germany from a performance: “we have lost a great performer and a great person in Oleg Bryjak. We are stunned.”
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