Black Box From German Crash Damaged, But Could Still Hold Clues

By Krishnadev Calamur / NPR

Published March 25, 2015 at 12:57 AM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

A rescue helicopter flies Wednesday over mountains near Seyne-les-Alpes, France, to search for the 150 victims who died in a Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps.

Here's what we know this morning about the German jetliner that crashed Tuesday into a mountainside in the French Alps, killing 150 people on board.

-- French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says the cockpit voice recorder from Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 is damaged, but could still tell us why the plane went down. Segolene Royale, France's energy minister, said the key to the investigation was what happened in the two-minute span that began at 10:30 a.m. local time Tuesday. That's when the plane began to descend after reaching cruising altitude. And Transportation Minister Alain Vidalies told Europe 1 radio that investigators will focus "on the human voices, the conversations" on the voice recorder, followed by the cockpit sounds.

-- Cazeneuve reiterated today that it was unlikely the plane was blown up.

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"Every theory must be considered while the inquiry goes on," he said. "An explosion is not the No. 1 suspected cause because the debris from the plane is concentrated in an area of about 1 ½ hectares. It's certainly a wide area because of the violence of the impact, but it shows that the plane probably didn't blow up."

-- Ground crews are slowly making their way through new snow and rain to the scene to recover the bodies of the victims of the flight that was traveling from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany.

-- Francis Hermitte, the mayor of Seyne-Les-Alpes, a town close to the site of the crash, says families are expected to arrive at the town today. The leaders of France, Germany and Spain will meet them there, he said.

-- We learned on Tuesday that the victims of the crash included two babies, 16 German high-schoolers and their two teachers. Two opera singers were among the victims, multiple news reports say. Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said at least three Britons were among the victims. He said that number could rise. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said an Israeli citizen who lived in Spain was among the victims.

-- Employees of Germanwings and Lufthansa, the low-cost carrier's parent company, around the world will hold a minute of silence at 10.53 a.m. today, Lufthansa said. That's when the contact with the flight was lost.

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