SEYNE-LES-ALPES: THE mystery of the "inexplicable" Germanwings crash in the Alps could be resolved within "days", French investigators announced last night (Wednesday night), after useable data was salvaged from the stricken Airbus 320's voice recorder.
The announcement came as French president Francois Hollande joined the leaders of Spain and Germany, the two countries who lost the highest number of nationals among the 150 dead, in visiting the crash site to pay their respects.
Mr Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel flew over the crash site by helicoper to see the devastation before meeting rescue workers outside the crisis centre set up on Tuesday after the worst air crash in France in four decades.
Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy also visited the centre to be briefed on the gruelling rescue operation in difficult mountain terrain. "My deepest sympathies with the families and all my thanks for the friendship of the people of this region and in France," wrote Ms Merkel in a book of condolence.
The French president promised that "all light" would be shed on the tragedy. "We have to understand what happened. We owe it to the families and the countries concerned by the drama."
"What has happened is the worst thing that can befall a human being," said Mr Rajoy. A simple ceremony took place with a distant view over the mountain where the plane crashed. Meanwhile, the recovery operations continued throughout the day, with the constant whir of helicopters ferrying rescue workers to the remote crash site.
On day one, their task was simply to locate parts of the plane and the remains of the passengers and crew. Yesterday began the process of bringing back debris and remains for analysis, an arduous undertaking as experts ruled out an explosion and said Flight 4U9525 had been literally "pulverised" when it slammed into the mountain at almost 500 miles per hour.
Forensics officers wearing white boiler suits at the rescue coordination centre and several white tents pitched at a small airfield south east of the mountain town of Seyne-les-Alpes.
The Daily Telegraph was able to approach the crash site and saw helicopters winching rescue workers to a near-vertical mountain flank. They were harnessed to colleagues as they inched their way up and down the treacherous rock and sand slopes in search of debris.
"The identification of bodies will take several days," warned Brice Robin, the Marseille prosecutor.
Hopes were raised that the second black box, the flight data recorder, had been found, but it later transpired that mountain gendarmes had only managed to locate its empty casing.
Regarding the voice recorder, Remi Jouty, director of France's BEA air incident investigator, said he was hopeful. "We just have been able to extract a useable audio data file," he said. But it was too early to draw any conclusions about the causes of the crash, he said.
"Detailed work will be carried out on the file to interpret the voices and sounds that can be heard," he said, adding that he expected to have more analysis of the voices in "a matter of days".
Details of a confidential initial report from French air traffic control passed to the German authorities show the plane left its assigned cruising altitude without approval and began to descend rapidly at 10.31am, losing 3,500 feet per minute. Repeated attempts to contact the flight on the international distress frequency proved unsuccessful, the report - leaked to Bild newspaper - suggested.
All the while, it was losing altitude but not increasing speed, suggesting the plane was not plummeting. This led to speculation among pilots that there was a loss of engine power.
One theory for the rapid descent was sudden depressurisation at 38,000ft, which could have knocked out the pilots had they not donned oxygen masks immediately, leaving a "ghost plane" to fly itself into the mountain.
However, the BEA said that the crash scenario did not appear to be linked to depressurisation and it ruled out a mid-air explosion.
"The aircraft flew to the end," said Mr Jouty. He added: "The debris that we have found, all of a small size, is not characteristic with an explosion in flight." He said there was still "no explanation on the descent or the radio silence".
With the identification of bodies underway, grieving relatives had been expected to gather en masse near the crash site, where a counselling unit has been established. Hundreds of beds in nearby Digne-les-Bains and Seyne-les-Alpes had been prepared. But in the event, almost none turned up.
Lufthansa officials have announced they will fly up to 150 bereaved Spanish relatives to the site tomorrow. A similar trip will be organised from Dusseldorf.
