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Germanwings Airbus A320 plane crash: Eyewitnesses recall seeing the aircraft skim the mountain tops before it came down Germanwings Airbus A320 plane crash: Eyewitnesses recall seeing the aircraft skim the mountain tops before it came down
(35 minutes later)
Eye-witnesses of today’s plane crash in the French Alps spoke of seeing the aircraft skim the mountain tops before it crashed far from any human habitation. An Airbus A320 passenger jet flew into the side of a mountain in the French Alps after skimming the mountain tops in a steep descent that killed all 150 people on board.
All 150 passengers and crew aboard the Germanwings flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf are feared to have died when it crashed into the side of the 9,000 high Estrop massif 100 miles north of Nice. All 144 passengers and six crew aboard the flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf – including a German schoolparty of 16 pupils and two teachers - are believed to have died when it crashed into the side of the 9,000 metre-high Estrop massif 100 miles north of Nice.
Sébastien Giroud, owner of  saw-works in Prads-Haute-Bléones, said that  he had glimpsed the plane for two or three seconds as it struggled over the village. “It was very low, only 1,500 or 2,000 metres and it seemed to be falling. I said to myself: ‘that’s not going to make it over the mountains. I never  heard a thing.” The regional newspaper La Provence quoted a local mountain guide as saying: “I took a dozen gendarmes up to the crash scene. From the Mariaud pass, I could see the wreckage. It was obvious to me that the plane had flown into the side of the mountain.”
Dominique, a shop-owner in the hamlet of La Javie (population 300), said that he and other villagers had seen the  airliner flying unusually low but had not seen or heard the crash. Sébastien Giroud, the owner of a saw-works in Prads-Haute-Bléones, said that he had glimpsed the plane for two or three seconds as it struggled over the village. “It was very low, only 1,500 or 2,000 metres and it seemed to be falling. I said to myself: ‘that’s not going to make it over the mountains. I never heard a thing.”
Helicopters of the French Air Force (back) and civil security services are seen in Seyne, south-eastern France, near the site where a Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed in the French Alps Eric Mauger, a goat farmer in Prads-Haute-Bléone, the nearest hamlet to the crash scene, said that the plane came down high on the mountains well-above the snow line. Dominique, a shop-owner in the hamlet of La Javie, said that he and other villagers had seen the airliner flying unusually low but had not seen or heard the crash.
Eric Mauger, a goat farmer in Prads-Haute-Bléone, the nearest hamlet to the crash scene, said that the plane came down high on the mountains well-above the snow line.
“We are the nearest to the catastrophe  and we saw and heard nothing,” he said. “As the crow flies it is not far, but we saw nothing, not even smoke.”“We are the nearest to the catastrophe  and we saw and heard nothing,” he said. “As the crow flies it is not far, but we saw nothing, not even smoke.”
Relatives of passengers killed in Germanwings plane crash arrive at the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany Relatives of passengers killed in Germanwings plane crash arrive at the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany Bruno Lambert, a mountain guide in the same village, said: “The plane came down in very steep mountain terrain, which is plagued by avalanches at this time of year. There was an avalanche just ten minutes ago.”
Bruno Lambert, a mountain guide in the same village, said: “The plane came down in very steep mountain terrain, which is plagued by avalanches at this time of year. There was an avalanche just ten minutes ago.”
A woman living in Verlet three kilometres from the crash said: “I heard a dull noise, like an avalanche starting or like the explosions they use to force avalanches. Then several fighter planes flew over the village, probably looking for the wreckage.”A woman living in Verlet three kilometres from the crash said: “I heard a dull noise, like an avalanche starting or like the explosions they use to force avalanches. Then several fighter planes flew over the village, probably looking for the wreckage.”
“Around mid-day I started to see smoke rising…Some village people climbed up to the Mariaud pass and they could see the  wreckage from there.”“Around mid-day I started to see smoke rising…Some village people climbed up to the Mariaud pass and they could see the  wreckage from there.”
Flight 4U 9525 vanished from radar screens at about 10.47 am local time, 46 minutes after take-off from Barcelona. French officials said that debris had been found on the 2,961 metre-high Estrop massif near the small  town of Barcelonette in the Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence.
French aviation officials denied earlier reports that the stricken aircraft had sent out a “mayday” signal. They said that it was French air traffic control which issued the distress signal when the plane disappeared from radar screens.
The French Prime Minister Maunel Valls, addressing parliament this afternoon, said: “no explanation for the crash can be excluded”.