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Tragedy strikes European air travel as German wings A320 passenger plane crashes near the small mountain village of Barcelonnette in the Southern Alps, France. Lufthansa\u2019s Germanwings budget flight #4U9525, en route from Barcelona to D\u00fcsseldorf, made a distress call at 10:47 am soon before disappeared off the radar (at around 11:20), as it started to lose altitude shortly after passing between Marseille and Toulon, reports Le Figaro.<\/p>\n
With a sum total of 148 on board including crew members, the plane was flying at a confirmed altitude of 6,800 feet, according to Flight Radar, before it made that mysterious distress call. After touching down on the ground, a local hypothesis asserts, the plane overran and crashed down the hill at its far end in the Digne area of South Eastern France.<\/p>\n
It immediately caught fire, spreading wreckage across the surrounding countryside, which leads President Hollande of France to believe that there are no survivors as a result of the crash. Airbus states its awareness of the crash but lacks a confirmatory report at present. However, the final conversations between Air traffic control (ATC) and the pilot prior to the crash reveal signs of distress which asserts the possibility in question.<\/p>\n
Local villagers were among the first on the scene to lend assistance, while a search-and-rescue operation has already been launched as we speak. Authorities have dispatched fire services staff, gendarmes, as well as experts for the process.<\/p>\n
Initial reports hint that access to the crash site is constrained, owing to excessive snowfall ranging around 2000 meters of snow. A remote local village is being used for all services to the site. With 148 fatalities and a huge hull loss, this is the biggest aviation disaster as of this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tragic strikes European air travel as German wings A320 passenger plane crashes near the small mountain village of Barcelonnette in the Southern Alps, France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":48309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5409,5411,5408,2100,5410],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-32768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airline-news","tag-airbus-a320","tag-french-alps","tag-germanwings","tag-plane-crash","tag-southern-france"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t