Alps crash 'a picture of horror'

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.

SAINT-LOUIS, France -- The pilots of a doomed German jetliner sent no distress call as the Airbus A320 went into a sharp, eight-minute descent Tuesday before crashing into the rugged French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard and leaving a scene of utter destruction.

"The site is a picture of horror,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after viewing the crash scene from the air.

All on board the Germanwings Airbus A320 were presumed dead, French officials said. The victims included two infants, two opera singers and 16 German high school students and their teachers returning from an exchange trip to Spain. It was the deadliest crash in France in decades.

The mystery over the cause was deepened by the lack of a distress call and the loss of radio contact with air traffic control as it rapidly descended from a 38,000-feet cruising altitude, France's aviation authority said. One of the plane's two black box recorders was recovered at the crash site.

The White House issued a statement saying that no link to terrorism had been found.

Al Diehl, a former crash investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the plane's high speed at low altitude, as evidenced by the wide scattering of small pieces of wreckage, suggested "extreme distress."

"When you get down the below the levels of the mountains and you're still going over 400 knots, either you're totally incapacitated or you have a horrific onboard emergency, or mechanically the aircraft is just not functioning," Diehl said. "You'd never fly an aircraft at 400 mph-plus anywhere close to those extreme terrain features."

The crash so distressed Germanwings crews that many did not show up for work, forcing mass flight cancellations, the RT news organization reported.

"One must not forget: many of our Germanwings crews have known crew members who were on board the crashed plane," Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said in a written statement.

Lufthansa owns Germanwings, which was forced to cancel 30 flights across Europe, the Bild and RT news organizations reported.

First responders were let down from helicopter cables into the crash zone before the search was ended for the day by darkness.

"We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart. The bodies are in a state of destruction. There is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage," Bruce Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, told Reuters news service after flying over the area.

"It's a tragedy on our soil," French President Francois Hollande said. "I want to express all my solidarity to the families of the victims of this air accident. This is a bereavement, a tragedy."

In Washington, President Obama called the crash "particularly heartbreaking because it apparently includes the loss of so many children.'' He said he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to express condolences and planned to speak with Spain's president.

"Our thoughts and our prayers are with our friends in Europe, especially the people of Germany and Spain, following a terrible airplane crash in France,'' Obama said.

"Our teams are in close contact, and we're working to confirm how many Americans may have been on board,'' Obama said. "Germany and Spain are among our strongest allies in the world, and our message to them is that as their steadfast friend and ally, America stands with them at this moment of sorrow."

French authorities called off the search after dark. About 10 gendarmes will spend the night at the crash site to guard it, and search operations will resume at daybreak, Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Meninchini of the regional police rescue service, said. Recovery operations are expected to last a week, he said.

Sixteen schoolchildren and two teachers from the Joseph-König school in Haltern am See, near Düsseldorf, perished in the crash. They were returning from an exchange program in Spain.

"This is pretty much the worst thing you can imagine," Haltern Mayor Bodo Klimpel said.

Germanwings Flight 9525 departed Barcelona for a two-hour flight to Duesseldorf​ at 10:01 a.m. local time — more than 20 minutes late. Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the Airbus A320 at 10:53 a.m., airline CEO Thomas Winkelmann said.

Air-traffic controllers issued a distress signal after losing contact with the plane and recognizing the steep descent. The pilots never issued such a signal.

In Barcelona, the origin of the flight, and in Düsseldorf, crisis teams were aiding traumatized family members and airline staff. Family members are to be bused to the area.

Winkelmann said 144 passengers — including two babies — and six crew were aboard. .

Winkelmann said a sudden descent lasted about eight minutes and that air-traffic controllers lost contact with the jet at about 6,000 feet. He added that the pilot had more than 10 years of experience and that the plane was inspected fully last summer and checked over on Monday. Safety experts from France, Germany and Spain were en route to the crash site, he added.

Winkelmann said 67 Germans were on board -- there was no immediate confirmation on other nationalities.

Germanwings is a relatively low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa popular with German tourists. It has expanded service to Spain in recent years. Twelve flights go between Barcelona and Düsseldorf every week.

The airline canceled most of Tuesday's remaining flights from Düsseldorf and some other airports as well, German broadcaster Ard reported.

"All employees of Germanwings and Lufthansa are deeply saddened," Winkelmann said. "Their thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew."

Lufthansa said it was operating under the theory that the crash was an accident.

The White House issued a statement saying Obama had been briefed by Lisa Monaco, his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, and that no link to terrorism had been found at this time, the statement said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and loved ones," the statement said. The U.S. State Department issued similar condolences, adding that the U.S. "stands ready to offer assistance and support" to the nations investigating the crash.

Hollande said the plane was carrying nationals from Spain, Germany and Turkey. He said that he wasn't aware of any French citizens aboard the plane. A manifest had not been released.

Merkel said many passengers were from Germany and that she would go to the region Wednesday.

Flight tracking systems indicated the plane's altitude was 38,000 feet at 10:30 a.m. when it began declining at a rate of more than 3,000 feet per minute. Eight minutes later it was down to 11,400 feet. At that point the Flightaware tracking system could provide no further statistics.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the crash occurred near Digne-les-Bains, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region — about 65 miles north of Nice. Debris from the crash has been located at an elevation of about 6,000 feet.

Capt. Benoit Zeisser of the Digne-le-Bains police told the French network iTele there were some clouds but the cloud ceiling was not low. Police tweeted a warning to people not to get close to the scene of the crash.

Sébastien Giroud, who lives in the hamlet of Prads-Haute Bléone, told TV station France Info that he saw the plane flying at an unusually low altitude and feared for the worse.

"I saw the plane flying very low for two or three seconds," he said. "When I saw it I understood that it wouldn't go too far."

Another resident said he saw the plane 800 meters from the ground, and described it as white aircraft with orange on the tail.

"I saw that the prow was lower than the tale, but I could not say it was nose-diving," Jean-Marie told Le Parisien. "I saw it during five seconds before it disappeared behind the mountains."

Valls said he had sent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to the scene of the crash, the first of a commercial jet on French soil since a Concorde jet crash outside Paris in July 2000 killed 113 people.

Airbus said it was sending a "go-team of technical advisers" to aid international authorities in the investigation. Lufthansa spokeswoman Kim Jucknat said the airline also has launched an investigation.

"My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew," Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said in a statement. " This is a dark day for Lufthansa."

Bacon reported from McLean, Va.; Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara and Kim Hjelmgaard in London; Bart Jansen in Washington, D.C.; William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Associated Press