History: Germanwings Flight 9525

On the 24th of March 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525? (4U9525) operated by Germanwings with an Airbus A320 registration D-AIPX crashed in the South of France near Prads-Haute-Bléone while en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. The flight was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A320-200 registered D-AIPX. The plane had its maiden flight on 29 November 1990 and was delivered to Lufthansa in February 1991. It first appeared in the Germanwings fleet in 2003 being later returned to Lufthansa. In January 2014 upon the relaunch of Germanwings the plane was sold by Lufthansa to Germanwings.

Background

Germanwings Flight 9525 took off from Barcelona El Prat Airport at 8.55 GMT according to Aena the operator of the airport. It was due to arrive in Düsseldorf at 11.55 CET.

Accident

The DGAC (French civil aviation authority) has released information that there was an emergency call from the crew before the aircraft disappearing from radar near Bassinet.

Available radar data suggests that the aircraft had reached FL380 and then 3 minutes later started descending from FL380 through FL110 in about 8 minutes (with an average rate of descent 3375 fpm). Later the aircraft has appeared to have leveled off at FL068 for one minute while on a northeasterly heading of 26 degrees true.

Search and recovery

Immediately after the crash a search and rescue operation was initiated. Two helicopters of the french police have identified the location of the aircraft debris at an altitude of about 2000 m in the mountains near Prads-Haute-Bléone. Initial reports say that there are no survivors so the operation will turn into a salvage operation.

Passengers and crew

People on board by nationality

Nationality	No.
Unknown:	105
Spain:	45
Total:	150

Response

France

French President François Hollande publicly issued a statement saying: "The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors." He then called the crash a tragedy and called for solidarity. The Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls said that he had dispatched the Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to the accident scene and set-up a ministerial crisis cell to co-ordinate the incident. President Hollande also said that he would be speaking with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

Spain

King Felipe VI of Spain, who was at the time of the accident flying to Paris for a state visit to France, announced he will be cancelling the visit and return to Spain. "Following conversations with President Hollande and Mariano Rajoy we have taken the decision to postpone our official visit to France and try and carry it out in the future," he said.

Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she will travel the crash site on 25 March 2015 (the day following the accident). The Chancellor said that the incident had plunged Germany, France and Spain into "deep mourning".

Investigation

The investigation will be conducted by Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA), the french authority responsible for the investigating of aviation accidents in France.

Conclusions

Aftermath

Further reading

List of accidents involving an Airbus A320
Aircraft disasters