Germanwings A320 crashes in France

[Franzl]

148 people on board, plane en-route from Düsseldorf to Barcelona. No information on the situation yet

[Franzl]

Hollande says probably no survivors...

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ugh, horrible news. RIP.

[RogueBeaver]

Plane apparently declared emergency just before impact. Crash site only accessible by air.

[Franzl]

It was Barcelona to Düsseldorf. Has been confirmed that there are no survivors.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A former colleague of mine happens to work as a Germanwings pilot now. Thankfully, he wasn't on that plane, as he was quick to point via Facebook.

If he shares anymore information I'll let you know...

[Tender Branson]

Well, that suxx.

Recovering the bodies will be really tough, considering the area. I live in a similar area myself and have been up on the mountains between 1500-3000m quite often, also in very bad conditions. Even if some people survived the crash up there (which I doubt), they would have a hard time surviving because it can get -15°C up there during the night and they are most likely injured too, heavily. It will take the alpine rescuers a few days to get up there and helicopters are virtually unable to land on this snowy and scattered terrain ...

[Tender Branson]

There is now new info about the crash site. Previously, the French media said the plane crashed at 2000m, in a snowy area.

Meanwhile, the crash site was located on a lower elevation and without snow.

From this picture, it looks like the rescue people are already there and might have it easier to recover the bodies than it was originally thought.

[RogueBeaver]

Black box has been found, per Interior Ministry.

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

There is now new info about the crash site. Previously, the French media said the plane crashed at 2000m, in a snowy area.

Meanwhile, the crash site was located on a lower elevation and without snow.

From this picture, it looks like the rescue people are already there and might have it easier to recover the bodies than it was originally thought.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will be easy to recover the bodies of the debris field is any indication. :/
A true tragedy; RIP.

[afleitch]

It appears that the co-pilot deliberately locked the pilot out of the cockpit.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Yeah, given the facts which are currently presented by the investigators at a press conference in Marseille, it looks as if this plane crash may have been the co-pilot's way of committing suicide.

[Likely Voter]

Yeah, given the facts which are currently presented by the investigators at a press conference in Marseille, it looks as if this plane crash may have been the co-pilot's way of committing suicide.

FFS. This is not the first time a pilot has done this. It's not suicide, it is mass murder.

Many in the pilot community are now questioning the post 9/11 armored door policy. It keeps terrorists out but also keeps unhinged pilots in.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The journalists are obviously trying to ascertain the, um, ethnic background of the co-pilot.

But maybe he was just mentally ill. Or an asshole. Or both.

[bedstuy]

I don't know about you guys, but I think that co-pilot who deliberately crashed the plane was a real jerk.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

The journalists are obviously trying to ascertain the, um, ethnic background of the co-pilot.

But maybe he was just mentally ill. Or an asshole. Or both.

His name was Andreas Lubitz and he was a German citizen, but it's not clear yet if he was mentally ill or hired/motivated to do this by outside groups.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The journalists are obviously trying to ascertain the, um, ethnic background of the co-pilot.

But maybe he was just mentally ill. Or an asshole. Or both.

His name was Andreas Lubitz and he was a German citizen, but it's not clear yet if he was mentally ill or hired/motivated to do this by outside groups.

That seems increasingly unlikely.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, nothing in this story suggests any relation with terrorism. The copilot was just a disgusting subhuman piece of sh*t who thought it would be cool to take 149 innocent lives in his own suicide.

[solarstorm]

Here are some interesting photos and data about the mass murderer Andreas Lubitz:

http://heavy.com/news/2015/03/andreas-lubitz-copilot-germanwings-flight-4u9525-plane-crash-french-alps/

http://heavy.com/news/2015/03/andreas-lubitz-pictures-photos-facebook-twitter-instagram/1/

[Rockefeller GOP]

Unbelievably sad and shocking.

[solarstorm]

I don't know what kind of website heavy.com is, but it seems to curry favor with conspiracy theorists:

http://heavy.com/social/2015/03/germanwings-4u9525-plane-crash-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-blackbox-copilot/

Under point 3, they say that Yvonne Selke, who worked with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, was the actual target.
Here's the associated video for that theory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTr1LJ0wfNs

I think those people are plainly disgustingly disgusting.

[NewYorkExpress]

The journalists are obviously trying to ascertain the, um, ethnic background of the co-pilot.

But maybe he was just mentally ill. Or an asshole. Or both.

His name was Andreas Lubitz and he was a German citizen, but it's not clear yet if he was mentally ill or hired/motivated to do this by outside groups.

No reason why it can't be both, can there?

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

The journalists are obviously trying to ascertain the, um, ethnic background of the co-pilot.

But maybe he was just mentally ill. Or an asshole. Or both.

His name was Andreas Lubitz and he was a German citizen, but it's not clear yet if he was mentally ill or hired/motivated to do this by outside groups.

No reason why it can't be both, can there?

Of course not, but most terrorists aren't mentally ill. It's really only important from the perspective that if he was put up to it by one group or another, there are culprits in this tragedy that can be brought to justice. There's no real indication of that right now, though.

[RogueBeaver]

Air Canada has implemented the 2-man rule effective immediately, as have a couple of European budget airlines.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Andreas Lubitz was probably a Muslim convert who had been recruited by the CIA to carry out a false-flag operation intended to implicate Vladimir Putin.

Either that or he was simply mentally disturbed. We do know that his initial pilot training was interrupted for as of now undisclosed medical reasons. Worst case is that Germanwings faces a lawsuit because they let a former psychiatric patient fly a plane or something like that.