Yahoo - AFP, Daniel Ortelli and Marc Burleigh, 25 March 2015
 |
French
President Francois Hollande (3rd left), German Chancellor Angela
Merkel
(centre) and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (2nd right) arrive
at
Seyne-les-Alpes on March 25, 2015, near the site where a German airliner
crashed in the French Alps (AFP Photo/Jeff Pachoud)
|
Seyne-les-Alpes
(France) (AFP) - The leaders of France, Germany and Spain visited a makeshift
rescue base near the Germanwings air crash site Wednesday, as investigators
ramped up their probe into the mysterious disaster that killed 150.
French
President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew over the
crash site to see the devastation for themselves before meeting rescue workers
outside the crisis centre set up on Tuesday after the worst crash in France in
four decades.
Spain's
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also visited the centre to be briefed on the
gruelling rescue operation in difficult mountain terrain where Flight 4U9525
crashed early Tuesday, scattering debris over a wide area.
 |
France's
investigators have recovered
the cockpit voice recorder from the
doomed
Germanwings flight but say it
was badly damaged in the crash (AFP
Photo)
|
Buffeted by
strong mountain winds, the ashen-faced leaders spent several minutes inspecting
a line-up of blue-uniformed rescue workers, chatting intently with the help of
interpreters.
"My
deepest sympathies with the families and all my thanks for the friendship of
the people of this region and in France," wrote Merkel in a book of
condolence.
Hollande
wrote: "Tribute to the victims. Support to the families."
Grieving
families were also gathering near the crash site, where a counselling unit has
been established.
Meanwhile,
investigators were combing through the pulverised wreckage and examining its
badly damaged black box for clues as to what caused the mysterious crash.
Hundreds of
firefighters and police were involved in the massive task at the rugged crash
site, accessible only by helicopter or an arduous hike on foot.
And in
Paris, experts analysed one of the plane's black boxes, hoping to discover why
the Airbus A320 went down in good weather -- an "inexplicable"
disaster according to Lufthansa, the budget airline's parent company.
Photos
issued by the BEA air crash investigation office showed the mangled orange
"black box", its metal casing torn and twisted by the violence of the
impact.
Officials
warned it would take several days to analyse the "very badly damaged"
cockpit voice recorder, but hoped it might offer initial clues to the mystery
later Wednesday.
'Horrendous' scene
 |
A woman reads a book of condolence for
the victims of the Germanwings plane crash
at the Berliner Dom cathedral on March 25,
2015 (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)
|
A second
black box, recording technical flight data, has yet to be found.
Authorities
are scrambling to explain why the plane suddenly began a fatal eight-minute
descent shortly after reaching cruising altitude on its route between Barcelona
and Duesseldorf.
No distress
signal was sent and the crew failed to respond to desperate attempts at contact
from ground control.
"It is
inexplicable," Lufthansa chief Carsten Spohr said in Frankfurt.
"The
plane was in perfect condition and the two pilots were experienced."
Officials
in Spain said at least 49 Spaniards had been killed in the accident, and
Germanwings said at least 72 Germans were dead.
French
police set up road blocks near the crash site, ordering all non-official
vehicles to turn around, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Just beyond
lay a steep and broken landscape littered with the shattered pieces of what was
Flight 4U9525.
"It's
a zone that is very difficult to access, very slippery. There was rain and snow
overnight. So we need to secure the zone before the investigators begin their
work," a spokesman for the French interior ministry, Pierre-Henry Brandet,
told reporters.
"We
are not in a race against time," he said. "We need to move forward
methodically."
The plane
was "totally destroyed," a local member of parliament who flew over
the site said, describing the scene as "horrendous."
 |
A
helicopter flies over the crash site
of the Germanwings Airbus A320 in the
French Alps (AFP Photo/Francis Pellier)
|
"The
biggest body parts we identified are no bigger than a briefcase," one
investigator said.
'Darkest
day'
More than
300 policemen and 380 firefighters have been assigned the grisly task of
searching the site.
The plane was
carrying six crew and 144 passengers, including 16 German teenagers returning
home from a school trip.
Their high
school in the small German town of Haltern was to hold a memorial event
Wednesday to honour the victims.
"This
is certainly the darkest day in the history of our city," said a tearful
Bodo Klimpel, the town's mayor. "It is the worst thing you can
imagine."
"Yesterday
we were many, today we are alone," read a hand-painted sign at the school,
decorated with 16 crosses -- one for each of the victims, most of whom were
around 15 years old.
Opera
singers Oleg Bryjak, 54, and Maria Radner, 33, were also on board, flying to
their home city of Duesseldorf. Radner was travelling with her husband and
baby, one of two infants on board the plane.
 |
Condolence
messages for the victims
of the Germanwings plane crash are laid at
a memorial
at Duesseldorf airport in western
Germany, on March 25, 2015 (AFP
Photo/
Federico Gambarini)
|
In Spain,
meanwhile, a minute's silence was observed at noon at countless points around
the country, including both houses of parliament in Madrid and public offices.
As the
probe gathered pace, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said investigators
were not focusing on the possibility it was a terrorist attack.
Germanwings,
the growing low-cost subsidiary of the prestigious Lufthansa carrier, had an
unblemished safety record.
Weather did
not appear to be a factor in the crash, with conditions calm at the time,
French weather officials said.
It was the
deadliest air crash on the French mainland since 1974 when a Turkish Airlines
plane crashed, killing 346 people.
Victims
were also confirmed from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia,
Denmark, Holland, Israel, Japan, Mexico and the United States, according to
officials.
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