First picture of crash (unconfirmed) - Twitter
 

Rescuers appear to have seen some movement in the debris.

Crash A320 : un possible survivant sur les lieux | La Provence

Acc. to German news mag "Der Spiegel" the airframe had 58.300hrs/46.700 Landings.

Plane disintegrated
 

Quote from above:
"Rescuers appear to have seen some movement in the debris.

Crash A320 : un possible survivant sur les lieux | La Provence "

If the plane has completely disintegrated as per twitter picture above, I do not see how anybody could have survived, maybe helicopter crew already on site as per official press release.

It definitely hadn't just come off a C Check.


2015-03-24
4U9524 Dusseldorf (DUS) Barcelona (BCN) 06:45 AM CET 07:01 AM 08:55 AM CET Landed 08:57 AM
2015-03-23

2015-03-23
4U9515 Madrid (MAD) Dusseldorf (DUS) 20:05 PM CET 20:25 PM 22:30 PM CET Landed 22:28 PM
2015-03-23
4U9514 Dusseldorf (DUS) Madrid (MAD) 16:40 PM CET 16:51 PM 19:25 PM CET Landed 18:58 PM
2015-03-23
(GWI79H)

2015-03-22
4U9045 Berlin (TXL) Dusseldorf (DUS) 20:40 PM CET 20:57 PM 21:55 PM CET Landed 21:49 PM
2015-03-22
(GWI45X)
2015-03-22
4U9044 Dusseldorf (DUS) Berlin (TXL) 18:35 PM CET 19:02 PM 19:40 PM CET Landed 19:48 PM
2015-03-22
4U9465 London (LHR) Dusseldorf (DUS) 15:40 PM GMT 16:12 PM 18:00 PM CET Landed 18:03 PM

Bodies have been observed...
 

A French deputy was on board an helicopter and made a testimony.
I hope that no precise pictures of what he has seen will be published.
It was hard for him to speak and hard to hear.

Last C Check in 2013


I do wish the Pres's and PM's would confine themselves to condolences and stay out of the "I am coordinating" grandstanding. They have experts already tasked for these incidents - let them do their jobs. Merkel is going to the site tomorrow to talk with the rescue teams.

From Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker! there is an ADS-B data file with 7909 data points available.

Final position is N44.234 E006.407 at 09:40:36Z, FL68, VS -3520 ft/min

The data file needs to be filtered for several stations that deliver bad data etc. The best station is 1418 which sends consistent data which data is plotted below
.
There was no change of squawk (5512 all the time).
FL380 was maintained for exactly 3 minutes before it was left again.
The descent was initially shallow, it did not start abrupt.

Here is a plot of Vertical rate and FL over Latitude. Track was 025° over the entire plot and GS was only slowly decreasing, therefore Latitude is almost proportional with time.

Vertical speed is fluctuating quite significant.

At the time of start of descent track changes 20 degrees to the left, but this seems to be in line with the flight path (same as day before).

http://fs1.directupload.net/images/150324/yp6dhgdb.jpg

I suspect that whatever unidentified source you are quoting simply means that ATC were in radar contact with the aircraft (which we already know), not that there was continuous voice contact (which we know there wasn't).

That doesn't follow at all.

See above.

I can't understand how an aircraft can decend so dramatically over 8 minutes with out ATC asking why or the pilot contacting ATC stating why.

Daz211
..I would bet my last buck the controller WAS asking and ( if neccessary) moving other traffic out of the way. WHETHER the crew was able to respond is the more pertinent question. From what I have read here it would appear they weren't.

We don't know that they didn't ask why (they had left their assigned FL, rather than why they were 'decending so dramatically')

We do know that ATC put out a request for sightings to other aircraft in the area, which suggests there was no dialogue between ATC and the aircraft during the descent.

Apologies; I have no charts for this area, but what is the MSA for the crash site? It would seem odd if it was a controlled descent to below MSA. Sorry if this has been asked & answered.

Apparently what's left:

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CA32CycU8AAhwIN.jpg

No big parts on this and at photos from previous link (contrary to what was said at the first two pages).

Main difference is weather (visibility).

New Picture of fuselage on left hand side
 

https://twitter.com/airlivenet/statu...772800/photo/1

part of fuselage on the left hand side

'Sixteen schoolchildren' on plane
 

Sixteen schoolchildren and two teachers are believed to have been on the aircraft, a spokeswoman for the German town of Haltern am See has said. "We don't have any official confirmation yet," she added.
Local media reports (in German) that the children are from the Joseph Koenig school. It says the building has been closed and students sent home.

Hard to imagine the debris field would be a wide as it shows in posts 203 and 205 if the flight tracker in post 197 is accurate.

Even with the rough terrain the VS suggests that there would be more big sections.

John in YVR
 

If you hit a cliff, in a high energy situation it matters not what your VS is. With VS 0 it will stil lead to total destruction.

Agree C&C as many other aircraft can but no airborne radar so would need cooperative aircraft using just radios.