Germanwings aircraft’s landing door needed repairs before flight

Flags were flying at half-mast in Spain and Germany after 150 people were killed when a Germanwings flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed yesterday in one of Europe's worst ever air disasters.

French crash investigators have begun studying a recorder recovered from the wreck of flight 4U9525, which went down just before 11am in the French Alps.

With a remote crash site, and forecasts of overnight sleet, the complicated recovery operation was suspended after 8pm last night to be taken up at first light today.

Among the 144 passengers and six crew believed dead were 45 Spaniards and 67 Germans, including two babies and 16 German teenage students returning from a school exchange visit to Catalonia with two of their teachers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her shock at the news, cancelled all appointments yesterday and warned against premature speculation about the crash cause.

“My thoughts and my sympathies are with the people who have lost their lives, particularly many of our countrymen and women,” said Dr Merkel.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said his government would "do everything possible in our power to help the families", while King Felipe expressed his "deepest sympathies" and cut short a visit to France. Speaking alongside the king, President François Hollande promised to make "all means available to clarify the cause and recover the bodies".

Crash site

This afternoon, Mr Hollande will travel to the crash site where he will meet the German and Spanish leaders.

The Airbus 320 operated by Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, flew yesterday at 7am from Düsseldorf to Barcelona, where it began a delayed return flight at 10.01. Three-quarters of an hour later it reached its cruising altitude of about 11,000m. Minutes later the altitude began to drop and, at about 1,800m, all contact with the aircraft was lost at 10.53am.

Germanwings chief executive Thomas Winkelmann said that, with more than 58,000 flight hours, the Airbus 320 was one of the oldest of these models still in operation. It was given its last routine check by Lufthansa engineers yesterday and had its last major overhaul in the summer of 2013.

“The captain of the plane had worked for more than 10 years with Lufthansa and Germanwings,” he said.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, but the national airline confirmed later that the crashed plane had experienced technical problems yesterday.

Problems had emerged with the plane’s landing door, through which the nose wheel emerges, but these were repaired, Lufthansa said, and the plane returned to service.

Germany's Spiegel Online website reported yesterday that Germanwings crews in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart refused to board planes, with crew members saying they were refusing to fly until they discussed with management issues of "unfit to fly" planes.

Flights were cancelled

A Lufthansa spokesman confirmed that several Germanwings flights were cancelled but said he was not aware this happened “out of concern that something was not in order”.

With French authorities saying no survivors were likely, 10 pathologists were near the crash scene last night and ready to begin work this morning identifying bodies.

In Düsseldorf airport authorities moved quickly to create a special assistance team. Relatives of passengers were brought to a secure part of the airport, given hotel rooms, and assured they will receive information first rather than through the media.

As in Düsseldorf, relatives in Barcelona were given psychological assistance and hotel rooms for the night. According to local reports, families will be taken by bus to Nice today to be near the crash site.

Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders was one of the first officials to visit near the crash site yesterday. The A320 is his consortium's most popular and successful aircraft.

"The plane is dependable, secure and very popular with passengers and airlines," said German aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt.

Other aviation experts suggested the plane’s partially automated flight module made it complicated for pilots to override in case of in-flight problems.