While the White House, seemingly an expert in determining airplane crashes causes within hours if not minutes of the accident (see flight MH-17) has already opined on the tragic crash of the Lufthansa Germanwings airplane:
- WHITE HOUSE: NO INDICATION OF TERRORISM IN AIRPLANE CRASH
This will hardly be comfort to the families of the 148 people who lost their lives the crash which took place in the south Franch alps, and where the first images of the debris have just been released, via Airlive.net [3]
[4]
Further evidence that the airplane crash was not a midair disintegration is that while the vertical airspeed was susbtantial, it wasn't freefall, and it took the airplane about 10 minutes to drop from a height of 11.5 to its final resting place some 2 kilometers high in the alps (via Zeit [5]).
And here are all the latest crash developments from AP [6]:
A local lawmaker says the debris from the plane crash in the French Alps that killed all 150 people on board is spread over 100-200 meters (110-220 yards).
Gilbert Sauvan, president of the general council of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, told the AP that "everything is pulverized."
He said the largest pieces of debris are the size of a small car.
Sauvan said no one can access the site from the ground, but that helicopters are circling the area to get information and 500 firefighters and gendarmes are in the area.
The boss of airline Germanwings says the plane went into a long descent before it crashed into the French Alps, likely killing all 150 people on board.
Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said the plane began descending again shortly after it reached its cruising height following takeoff from Barcelona Airport. The descent lasted eight minutes, he told reporters in Cologne. Radar and air traffic control contact broke off at 10:53 a.m.
He said the pilot had more than 10 years' experience working for Germanwings and its parent airline Lufthansa. Airbus said the A320 was delivered to Lufthansa in 1991.
Germanwings said the passenger manifest included two babies. Officials believe there were 67 German nationals on board.
