Germanwings Plane Crash: 16 German Students on Flight
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French Interior Ministry(DIGNE, France) — Sixteen students and two teachers from a high school in Germany were among the passengers on the Germanwings flight that crashed in a remote part of southern France Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the city of Haltern, Germany.
The plane was en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany, when it crashed in the Alps, near the town of Digne, according to the airline.
The students, from Joseph King High School, had been returning from an exchange trip in Barcelona, Haltern spokesperson Florian Adamak said.
This is the “darkest day in the history of our city,” Haltern-am-See Mayor Bodo Klimpel said at a news conference.
Klimpel said the school would not close on Wednesday, but “it won’t be a routine day of classes.”
He said chaplains would be made available and “the students will have the opportunity to talk about the terrible tragedy.”
“You can imagine that tomorrow is a particularly difficult day for our teachers, because they have lost two colleagues,” Klimpel said.
The plane, an Airbus A320, was carrying 144 passengers — including two babies — and six crew members, Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said at a news conference.
There were “apparently no survivors,” said French President Francois Hollande.
Germanwings’ CEO said it is believed 56 Germans were on board, but “that figure may change.”
There were also Spanish and Turkish passengers, said Spanish King Felipe IV.
The list of nationalities of the casualties will be released as soon as the airline is certain, Winkelmann said, adding that the victims’ families will be informed before a list of names will be released.
The cause of the accident has not yet been determined, the Germanwings CEO said. A black box from the plane was found, the Interior Ministry confirmed, and will be analyzed in the coming hours.
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