[This report was updated at 6:30 p.m. EST to include new information about the accident and a link to video of the crash site.]
France's BEA air accident investigation bureau confirmed that it has found one of two black boxes from the Germanwings A320 that crashed in the French Alps just before 11 a.m. local time today. The investigators have yet to confirm whether they have found the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.
A spokesman for France's DGAC civil aviation authority told AIN that no distress call or signal came from the aircraft. However, an air traffic controller triggered an emergency response at 10.30 am. local time after he observed that the A320 was descending and not responding to radio communications.
A team of seven BEA investigators is working with three colleagues from German accident investigation agency BFU, as well as several technical advisors from Airbus and engine supplier CFM International Early photos released by local information website laprovence.com suggest the aircraft crashed in a very steep, rocky area, where no snow can be seen. Debris iscattered over a vast surface. Some 650 firemen and policemen are involved in the effort, as well as 10 helicopters.
All 144 passengers and 6 crew on board Germanwings flight 4U9525 are believed to be dead, according to French officials. The crash site is near the TĂŞte de l'Estrop mountain at an altitude understood to be between and 6,500 and 9,800 feet. Aerial video of the crash site taken by francetvinfo.fr shows wreckage spread across a wide area.
Data from Flightradar24.com shows a descent at a rate of around 3,500 feet per minute, over the course of the nine minutes that preceded the crash. Flight 4U9525 had left Barcelona, Spain, earlier in the morning and was scheduled to land in DĂĽsseldorf, Germany, at 11:55 a.m. Germanwings is a subsidiary of Lufthansa German Airlines.
Airbus confirmed that the A320 was registered as D-AIPX and was manufacturer serial number 147 delivered to Lufthansa in 1991. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 58,300 flight hours in 46,700 flights. It was powered by a pair of CFM International CFM56-5A1 engines.
In a press conference held in Cologne at 3 p.m., Germanwings said that the captain had 10 years' experience, including some 6,000 flight hours on Airbus types.
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