German town reeling after crash kills 16 students

Meritxell Mir | Special for USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption White House on crash: No link to terrorism found USA TODAY's Hadley Malcolm speaks with Kim Hjelmgaard regarding the latest details from the press conference of the Lufthansa plane crash.

A small German town is reeling over the devastating plane crash in the French Alps that left 16 of its students and at least two teachers dead Tuesday.

Bodo Klimpel, the mayor of Haltern am See located about 50 miles northeast of the jet's destination of Düesseldorf, looked red-eyed and appeared shaken at a news conference Tuesday.

"I would like to assure you that this the blackest day our community has ever had. We are in shock and this the worst thing that could have happened to us," he said.

Klimpel said the school will open Wednesday to help the students, with support from teachers and administrators.

Residents had all been "full of hope" until they got official confirmation that the students were on the plane, Klimpel said. The students and teachers from Joseph-König-Gymnasium had been returning from a nine-day language exchange with a high school in Llinars del Valles near Barcelona, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported.

After the first news of a crash came, many parents traveled to the Düesseldorf Airport in the hope that the children had arrived safely after all. Those parents were being tended to by the crisis managers at the airport.

Germanwings, a low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, has never had a plane crash. It confirmed 67 passengers held German passports. About 45 passengers had Spanish surnames, the airlines said, but the Spanish government has not yet confirmed their nationality. Turkish and French citizens were also on board.

Flags at government buildings in Düesseldorf were flying at half-staff. Christopf Metzelder, a professional soccer player from the area, said on Facebook that he has "deepest sympathy and sadness." Metzelder had once attended Joseph-König-Gymnasium.

Passengers at Düesseldorf Airport were bewildered. Jutta Lüdtke-Enking of Düesseldorf held pink flowers while waiting for her sisters, who were on another plane from Mallorca, Spain.

"I have often flown the Barcelona-Düesseldorf route with Germanwings myself," she told Handelsblatt newspaper. "I'm lost for words. Terrible."

Süleyman Deran searched the departure area for his best friend whose sister was on board the crashed plane. "We've known each other since we were kids. This is incredibly sad," he said.

At Barcelona Airport, where the plane originated, devastated relatives and friends were escorted by members of the Catalan regional police who protected them from several reporters and cameras. Police rushed them into a dedicated room at the airport where a team of psychologists and psychiatrists were ready to help.

Jordi Campoy told Catalan news outlet El Periodico he was waiting for more information on a friend and wife of a former colleague who were flying to Düesseldorf for a business meeting.

"I hope they didn't get on that plane," he said.

Mir reported from Saint-Louis, France. Contributing: Mihret Yohannes and Jabeen Bhatti, both in Berlin