Where the Germanwings Plane Crashed

A passenger plane carrying 150 people from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, Germany, crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday. The French authorities said no one survived.The plane went down in a remote part of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, and search teams struggled to get to the area. When French air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft, it was flying at approximately 6,000 feet; the elevations in the search area range between 2,000 and 9,000 feet.

Location of

debris

ITALY

FRANCE

Barcelonnette

Durance

Last radar contact

6,800 FT.

ABOVE GROUND

Flight path

INITIAL

SEARCH AREA

Digne

The New York Times | Flight path data from Flightradar24; satellite image by NASA/U.S.G.S. Landsat; debris location from French national police

No helicopters have been able to land because of the rugged terrain around the crash site. Searchers had to be lowered, further slowing recovery efforts. The size of the debris area, which was about the size of three to four football fields, suggests the plane hit the ground at a very high speed, according to the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve.

Debris

field

Last radar contact

around here

4,550 FT.

ABOVE GROUND

Le Vernet

The New York Times | Flight path data from Flightradar24; satellite image by NASA/U.S.G.S. Landsat

The jetliner reached a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet but remained there for only a few minutes before beginning to descend rapidly.

38,000 feet

40,000

6,800

feet

20,000

Period of

rapid descent

10 a.m. local time

10:30

10:41

The New York Times | Flight path data from Flightradar24
A senior military official involved in the investigation said evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane’s descent and was unable to get back in.

1Before the descent, the pilot who was locked out of the cockpit “is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer,” the investigator said. He then tried to smash the door in.

2The plane descended steadily at about 3,400 feet per minute, roughly twice as fast as a typical descent but within the capability of the aircraft.

3It is unclear why the plane continued to descend on a day with high visibility. One possibility is that the pilot in the cockpit, who did not communicate with air traffic controllers during the descent, was incapacitated.

38,000 feet

30,000

Typical descent

1,500–2,000 feet

per minute

20,000

Nosedive

8,000 feet

per minute

Germanwings

3,400 feet

per minute

10,000

Alps

Med. Sea

10:30

10:31

10:32

10:33

10:34

10:35

10:36

10:37

10:38

10:39

10:40

10:41

The New York Times | Sources: Todd Curtis, Airsafe.com; Glenn Harmon, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; flight path data from Flightradar24

The aircraft took off from Barcelona about 10 a.m. French air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at 10:53 a.m.

-NY TIMES