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Early Tuesday morning (EDT), reports began to surface that an aircraft had crashed in the French Alps. It is now confirmed than a Germanwings A320, registered as D-AIPX, “suffered an accident” over the French Alps. the flight was traveling from Barcelona enroute to Dusseldorf. According to the airline, the flight had 144 passengers and six crew members onboard.
Update (3/27/15) at 11:30 a.m. EDT: The airline has declared that the first officer did not give a sick note to the company on the day of the accident.
Update (3/26/15) at 6:51 p.m. EDT: Upon investigation of cockpit voice recorder (CVR), investigators have stated that the crash of Germanwings 9525 was a deliberate act by the first officer of the Airbus A320. An official motive behind the first officer’s actions has not been reported.
Update (3/26/15) at 5:00 p.m. EDT: With confirmation that the captain was locked out of the cockpit, investigators have determined that the first officer was alive and breathing in the cockpit. Investigators determined this by reviewing the cockpit audio.
With this, the investagtion is now, additionally, a criminal one led by the French BEA.
Update (3/25/15) at 9:00 p.m. EDT: According to reports, officials have been able to recover audio from the cockpit voice recorder that was heavily damaged. At this time, it is not clear as to how much audio is recoverable.
Via a New York Times report, a senior official investigating the accident said that investigators heard the pilot trying to “smash the door down” in the cockpit audio recording.
Update (3/25/15) at 3:45 p.m. EDT:Â Officials have stated that one of the black boxes have been found, but it may be rendered unusable due to the heavy damage.
In addition, recover teams and airline personnel have been able to safely visit the crash site. The airline also reports only one cancellation today in the wake of the accident. In a recent update, the airline also noted that some crew members did not come to work due to emotions after the crash.
Furthermore, Lufthansa has released a video with its CEO speaking on the accident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plnhh1QELag
Update at 4:00 p.m. EDT: Officials have confirmed that the aircraft has been found. Due to the full loss of the aircraft, many, including France’s Prime Minister, fear the worst. Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, and Germanwings itself have established a toll-free number for family members of passengers onboard #4U9525 to call: 0800 11 33 55 77.
Also, Germanwings and Lufthansa have changed their social media profile images to a grey theme.
Update at 8:38 a.m. EDT:Â According to Reuters, the German government will be sending the transport minister, along with accident investigators to the crash site. Multiple countries including Spain and France have stated that they will help the accident victims’ families.
The airline has yet to release any official word on the situation.
Update at 7:12 a.m. EDT: Initial reports of the Germanwings 9525 situation began making the headlines just minutes ago.
The airline announced through Twitter that they were aware of “media reports speculating an incident” over the Alps, however they did not have confirmation from inside the company that anything had occurred.
As we learn more information from Germanwings, we will continue to update this article.
French regional official says no piece of #Germanwings plane crash debris is larger than a small car. http://t.co/iWeLBpmiHS
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) March 24, 2015
Playback of flight #4U9525 is available on http://t.co/FHoX6q0GHt Pictures http://t.co/VWG2skC75J pic.twitter.com/e4D5Tx8n1x
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 24, 2015
Our last position reports of the Germanwings plane shows a very rapid descent pic.twitter.com/OhJAEeyVoK
— Plane Finder (@planefinder) March 24, 2015
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