France plane crash: No survivors expected [Condolences to the families]

[redsn0w]

- 12:54 p.m. ET: The doomed Germanwings plane is obliterated, with no piece of debris larger than a "small car," said Gilbert Sauvan, the president of Alpes de Haute Provence region.

Sauvan, a high-level official who is being briefed on the operation, said that human remains are strewn for several hundred meters. Helicopters have flown over the crash site but have not been able to land.

Authorities may not be able to retrieve any bodies Tuesday, according to Sauvan, with the frozen ground complicating the effort. Wednesday may not be much easier, with snow in the forecast.

- 12:20 p.m. ET: There were 144 passengers (including two babies) and six crew members aboard Germanwings Flight 9525, an airline spokesperson said.

......
Full story:

A Germanwings Airbus A320 plane crashed Tuesday in the foothills of the Alps in southeastern France with at least 150 people on board, according to Germanwings managing director Oliver Wagner.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters he fears all those aboard the flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany. The plane crashed near Digne-les-Bains, in the Alpes de Haute Provence region, Valls said.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/24/europe/france-plane-crash/index.html

It is a really bad news  . All my support to the families

That's a weird crash site.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kh32q_first-footage-of-germanwings-flight-4u9525-airbus-a320-plane-crash-site_news

In one of the most chilling segments of this morning's press conference describing what was found on the cockpit voice recorder, screams were heard from passengers and crew as the realisation of what was about to happen struck them all. Prosecutor Brice Robin's findings state that when the German Captain left the cockpit - following what appeared to be - the 28-year-old German co-pilot (who was alive to the end) refused to re-open the door and began an "intentional", "controlled", and "steady" descent as he "seems to have sought to destroy the plane." Nothing indicates that this was a terrorist incident.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-26/germanwings-co-pilot-deliberately-destroyed-airplane-identified-28-year-old-german-c

A very interesting read:

The Germanwings tragedy: inside the mind of a pilot (by Michael Bloomfield)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/27/germanwings-tragedy-pilot-psychiatrist-psychological-evaluation-andreas-lubitz

<< French prosecutors have reported that first officer Andreas Lubitz appeared to want to destroy the aircraft carrying 149 innocent people aboard Germanwings flight 4U9525. As a qualified pilot and a psychiatrist, I have since repeatedly imagined nightmare scenarios in that cockpit. Although we will never know what was truly going through Lubitz's mind as the aircraft plunged, one of the many alarming aspects of this tragedy is that his depression is being quickly blamed. Obviously depression cannot be the sole cause of a likely mass murder. Understanding this could yield many important lessons, and for now, the black box flight recorder will continue to yield vital information. (...) >>

(Michael Bloomfield is a research fellow in psychiatry at Imperial College London)

[bitgeek]

I read about it today, very sad and disturbing as I'm flying German A320s once or twice a year. I read it went off course before the crash and they are suspecting a pilot's mistake, because 320s are automated and easy to fly. I remember in 2012 one of these hit a helicopter and still managed to land despite the damages.

[abcdave]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

Few other links:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/german-a320-airbus-plane-crashes-french-alps
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32030270
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11491587/Airbus-A320-crashes-in-French-Alps-with-148-people-on-board-live.html

[jaysabi]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

Few other links:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/german-a320-airbus-plane-crashes-french-alps
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32030270
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11491587/Airbus-A320-crashes-in-French-Alps-with-148-people-on-board-live.html

There isn't any one cause. Each disaster has it's own causes. Most likely you're just identifying what you perceive to be a pattern (grouping of air disasters) in recent memory. It's kinda how people say "deaths always happen in threes" when two celebrities die in close proximity, and then people wonder who the third is going to be. Logically, that makes no sense, it's just how our brains are wired to see patterns and is a type of information and confirmation bias.

[bitgeek]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

<snip>

There was only 1 other plane crash this year, which still makes planes very safe and reliable. Just think about it, most airports in the world have over 10 takeoffs every hour and out of these thousands of planes in air every day we have maybe one crash every 2 months. I read a lot about plane crashes and most are due to human error.

[--Encrypted--]

just saw this on the news today. my full condolences to the families of the missing passengers.

you'd think that the more advanced our technologies are, the less accident will happen. but for some reason we have a lot of plane crashes these days.

[jaysabi]

just saw this on the news today. my full condolences to the families of the missing passengers.

you'd think that the more advanced our technologies are, the less accident will happen. but for some reason we have a lot of plane crashes these days.

I think there are less plane crashes relative to the number of flights than there have been in the past. There are just many more flights now than there used to be.

[Vod]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

<snip>

There was only 1 other plane crash this year, which still makes planes very safe and reliable. Just think about it, most airports in the world have over 10 takeoffs every hour and out of these thousands of planes in air every day we have maybe one crash every 2 months. I read a lot about plane crashes and most are due to human error.

Just like cars, plane travel will become a lot safer when humans are taken out of the equation and only used for emergencies (mechanical problems).

[Hamuki]

Just the thought of being the parent that finds out that there isnt any kids comming home.
And there is nothing of them left.

Its impossible to describe it.

[abyrnes81]

Condolences to the families of the missing passengers, really bad news I am really sad  .

[jaysabi]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

<snip>

There was only 1 other plane crash this year, which still makes planes very safe and reliable. Just think about it, most airports in the world have over 10 takeoffs every hour and out of these thousands of planes in air every day we have maybe one crash every 2 months. I read a lot about plane crashes and most are due to human error.

Just like cars, plane travel will become a lot safer when humans are taken out of the equation and only used for emergencies (mechanical problems).

Is that not how planes operate now? I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the pilots are mainly used for takeoffs and landings and the majority of the flight time is now spent on autopilot or to reroute around storms or turbulence.

[Aggressor66]

Awful tragedy. Children and babies aboard. 
Prayers to the families and may all the victims RIP.

[Snail2]

Condolences to the families of the victims.

[Spendulus]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

Few other links:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/german-a320-airbus-plane-crashes-french-alps
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32030270
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11491587/Airbus-A320-crashes-in-French-Alps-with-148-people-on-board-live.html

There isn't any one cause. Each disaster has it's own causes. Most likely you're just identifying what you perceive to be a pattern (grouping of air disasters) in recent memory. It's kinda how people say "deaths always happen in threes" when two celebrities die in close proximity, and then people wonder who the third is going to be. Logically, that makes no sense, it's just how our brains are wired to see patterns and is a type of information and confirmation bias.

except when there is only one cause...

[Nemo1024]

Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?

<snip>

There was only 1 other plane crash this year, which still makes planes very safe and reliable. Just think about it, most airports in the world have over 10 takeoffs every hour and out of these thousands of planes in air every day we have maybe one crash every 2 months. I read a lot about plane crashes and most are due to human error.

Just like cars, plane travel will become a lot safer when humans are taken out of the equation and only used for emergencies (mechanical problems).

Is that not how planes operate now? I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the pilots are mainly used for takeoffs and landings and the majority of the flight time is now spent on autopilot or to reroute around storms or turbulence.

Your assumption is correct. And even landings are often performed on autopilot in the larger airports with ILS CAT III. During the flight, the pilot will set the plane on autopilot and only adjust settings through the autopilot to change the course or altitude.

There was a disaster when the plane's autopilot was automatically switched off without the pilot being notified, when too much pressure was applied to the yoke.

Each plane crash is a tragedy, but speculation as to what happened in France are fruitless until the flight recorders are found and decoded.

Sincere condolences to the families...

[hangar18]

What a terrible last few months it has been for the aviation industry.  RIP to all the travelers.

[foxbitcoin]

That's a weird crash site.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kh32q_first-footage-of-germanwings-flight-4u9525-airbus-a320-plane-crash-site_news

[Lorenzo]

That's a weird crash site.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kh32q_first-footage-of-germanwings-flight-4u9525-airbus-a320-plane-crash-site_news

Not sure if it's relevant but it seems that the particular A320 in question was nearing the end of its natural lifespan which does raise the possibility that the crash was caused by some sort of mechanical malfunction:

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A320-211, serial number 147, registered as D-AIPX. Its first flight was on 29 November 1990, and it was delivered to Lufthansa on 5 February 1991. It served with Germanwings for the first time in 2003. It was returned to Lufthansa in 2004 and was re-transferred to the relaunched Germanwings on 31 January 2014. The aircraft had accumulated about 58,300 flight hours on 46,700 flights. The original Design Service Goal (DSG) of the aircraft was 60,000 hours or 48,000 flights.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525

[Vod]

Airplane crashes are always terrible.  I guess the best thing about them is the quick death - you don't suffer in any way - other than the anxiety before.

Thoughts to all the families involved.  The world needs less crashes.  

[Father Ted]

Each plane crash is a tragedy, but speculation as to what happened in France are fruitless until the flight recorders are found and decoded.

Sincere condolences to the families...

They already found it, though not sure how long it takes to decode. Don't flight recorders only collect certain flight data? I guess if it was shot down or just blew up randomly the box wouldn't be able to help (not saying it was anything to do with those two but speaking in general about crashes).

That's a weird crash site.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kh32q_first-footage-of-germanwings-flight-4u9525-airbus-a320-plane-crash-site_news

Looks like it might have broken up mid air and scattered debris over a distance.