To summarise the media coverage I have seen in Spain:
EC-LTV is the aircraft registration.
Most reports seem to come from French sources; snippets of African sources too. (Filtered through Paris?)
The “official story” is most definitely that the cause of the accident was “bad weather”; though the possibility of other factors playing a “lesser” part is not wholly discounted.
Spokesman for the Spanish ATC (union?) interviewed on radio this morning mentioned his time as a controller in Ibiza and the need to divert aircraft hundreds of kilometers off course to avoid flying through storms which could wreck a modern aircraft there as analagous to the need for similar deviations in Africa.
The concept of 2 changes of course by this aircraft both to avoid the storm and (subsequently?) to avoid another aircraft is widely reported.
Though the presence of French military units operating in Mali is mentioned everywhere, one Spanish radio station COPE highlighted the presence of Spanish troops “in that area.” Mention has been made of 2 Spanish military aircraft being deployed to help repatriate bodies.
One flight recorder found.
Pilots Union (SEPLA) spokesman on lunchtime tv news highlighted the vast experience of the crew (both pilots are reported as ex-Spanair.)
SEPLA criticism of the company in question Swiftair for commercial practices which would inevitably lead to compromises of safety margins as printed in an issue of a SEPLA magazine during 2013 are reported, though the spokesperson mentioned above did not press this as a likely cause.
The captain is described as “an old Africa hand” though the co-pilot was effectively on “her first African posting.” (I think I heard it said that she had only moved there relatively recently.)
The company in question Swiftair is not very visible at all. Lots of video of the outside of their offices near Madrid and press-release-type shots of their aircraft.
Though relatives of the crew and employees of the company are seen entering and leaving the offices, direct contact of the company with the press has been almost non-existent. The small amount of official information from them has mainly come from statements on the web, although both yesterday and today a “spokesman” for the company read prepared statements to the press on camera. I write “spokesman” because his name and his position in the company is not quoted anywhere that I have seen.
In addition, in terms of location, these briefings were both conducted on the street. From this I conclude that Swiftair are currently unwilling to allow journalists to enter their offices.
This push for anonymity is reflected on-line currently in the “Statement from the Managing Director of Swiftair” in Spanish, French and English which nowhere mentions the actual name of this person.
http://www.swiftair.com/corporativa/NOTA.pdf
I think I am correct in saying that although lunchtime tv broadcasts today identified by name all 6 deceased crew, with a photo of the 6 of them together as well as individual photos from elsewhere, especially from social media, Swiftair has not currently revealed their identities.
In a routine Friday press briefing after the regular Friday meeting of the Spanish cabinet, the Spanish Deputy PM highlighted that all the aircraft’s paperwork was in order. The aircraft had received a major inspection in January 2014 and so had a valid certificate until December 2014.