News Germanwings Flight 4U9525 (Airbus A320) crash in Southern France (24 March 2015)

[Urwumpe]

Not many news yet, but some alerts that a Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed in southern France. It was flight 4U9525.

The aircraft was flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf and transported 142 passengers and a crew of six. The aircraft lifted off on 9:35. The aircraft disappeared from radar on 11:15 and crashed somewhere in the region of Barcelonnette, in the southern Alps. The first pieces of wreckage have been found.

The homepage of the airline seems to be slashdotted.

 

[Fabri91]

Avherald.com has also been taken by storm, apparently.

 

[IronRain]

The A320 in question was a pretty old birdy.
Number 0147, delivered in 1990.

I really hope the plane didn't crashed as a result of poor maintenance to keep the tickets prices as low as possible.

 

[asbjos]

According to flightradar24.com, this is the route it had: http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/d-aipx/#5d42675

It seems like everything went like normal on the ascent, but after 3-4 minutes at 38000 ft, it took an 18 degree left turn and started descending at 4000 ft/min.
Chilling.

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like a controlled descend, since the sink rate was nearly constant, but not sure why. Nothing known yet about any emergency calls.

 

[IronRain]

According to some dutch news sites, the pilots squawked 7700, which was picked up at 10:47 by German ATC controllers. (not sure where they got that information, they also show pictures from proton rockets when an expedition launches to the ISS).

 

[Urwumpe]

Here, some news sites are rumouring about the pilot trying to land in Barcelonetta, but that's highly doubtful. The airport has a 800 meter runway in 1000 meter altitude, the A320 needs around 1500 meters for landing.

---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 PM ----------

According to some dutch news sites, the pilots squawked 7700, which was picked up at 10:47 by German ATC controllers. (not sure where they got that information, they also show pictures from proton rockets when an expedition launches to the ISS).

10:47 is 10 minutes after the official time of crash by the German air traffic control organisation DFS, which is 10:37.

But French sources also agree that the pilot called out an emergency on radio.

FYI, Carsten Spohr is the current CEO of Lufthansa.

---------- Post added at 01:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 PM ----------

Sadly, the last signs of life of the communication department of Germanwings are not so great:

https://twitter.com/germanwings/status/580321246405111808

---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 PM ----------

The crash site is in mountain massive called Trois-Évêchés near Digne-les-Bains, with many small glaciers, which makes it very hard to reach.

The mountains reach up to 2,687 meters there.

http://peakery.com/les-trois-eveches-france/

EDIT: This means the crash site is really a straight line from the beginning of the 4000 ft/min descent.

 

[kamaz]

Looks like a controlled descend, since the sink rate was nearly constant, but not sure why.

The conspiracy crowd is going to have a field day with that one.

 

[Urwumpe]

The conspiracy crowd is going to have a field day with that one.

You name it.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Rapid depressurization? Sad, whatever happened.

 

[Urwumpe]

Rapid depressurization? Sad, whatever happened.

Is one possibility, but right now, the favourite hypothesis among the media is the Airbus ELAC software bug striking again.

 

[IronRain]

From the press conference:
"The plane received a routine check, just last night"

Which reminds me of:
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390"]British Airways Flight 5390 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Urwumpe]

The aircraft did not send an emergency call, the ATC themselves decided to call the uncooperative plane an emergency.

The plane is also said to have "the latest flight computers", whatever this means in consequence.

16 students and two teachers from the German town of Haltern are currently suspected to be among the victims, but that has not yet been confirmed.

The more precise crash location is in 1500 meters altitude, near the village Le Vernet in the Blanche Valley.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/44.2812/6.4189

http://www.google.de/maps/@44.2760109,6.4232685,15z/data=!5m1!1e4

 

[Wolf]

Loking at the ALT/Speed graph associated to flightradar the indicated airspeed below 15000 feet is always around 410 knots which is well above VMO (max certified speed).
For sure NOT a controlled descent...
Where is the datum relative to the constant vertical speed (4000 fpm) taken from?

 

[Urwumpe]

Loking at the ALT/Speed graph associated to flightradar the indicated airspeed below 15000 feet is always around 410 knots which is well above VMO (max certified speed).
For sure NOT a controlled descent...
Where is the datum relative to the constant vertical speed (4000 fpm) taken from?

Note that this Altitude/Speed graph is not a source for IAS.

Usually such sites display ground speed, not TAS or IAS, because the source of the velocity is the ground radar and does not incorporate wind.


Here is the tabular data of the flight in a CSV format:

http://www.flightradar24.com/GWI18G_20150324.csv

 

[C3PO]

Is one possibility, but right now, the favourite hypothesis among the media is the Airbus ELAC software bug striking again.

Smoke in the cabin/cockpit could trigger a similar reaction.

 

[asbjos]

As it has emerged that the crew did not send out a mayday and regarding the constant rate of descent, how probable is it that the cabin pressure was too low resulting in loss of consciousness (like [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522"]Helios Airways Flight 522 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame])?

I don't know how the cockpit works, but what if the pilot lost consciousness, falling over the "steering wheel", resulting in the autopilot to disengage so that the airplane fell down?

 

[C3PO]

BBC is now reporting that the plane underwent regular maintenance yesterday.

 

[IronRain]

As it has emerged that the crew did not send out a mayday and regarding the constant rate of descent, how probable is it that the cabin pressure was too low resulting in loss of consciousness (like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522)?

I don't know how the cockpit works, but what if the pilot lost consciousness, falling over the "steering wheel", resulting in the autopilot to disengage so that the airplane fell down?

FYI, the Airbus A320 (and many of the other Airbus aircrafts) doesn't have a yoke. It uses a "joystick":

 

[C3PO]

At least one of the recorders has been found. Which one is not clear yet.