Mystery Of Doomed Jet's Eight-Minute Descent

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Investigators hope a black box found at the Germanwings crash site will help explain why it suddenly plummeted from 38,000ft to 6,000ft without makinga distress call.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said one of the two recording devices was recovered between Barcelonnette and Digne, where the crash site has been described as a "picture of horror".

Weather has already been ruled out by experts as a cause, and US officials say terrorism is also unlikely.

Investigators hope the black box from the Germanwings airliner will provide clues and a number of possibilities, including engine failure, are being considered.

Sources suggest that the speed of the plane shortly before the crash - about 350mph (300 knots) - might indicate engine failure as a cause.

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Gallery: Rescue Teams And Relatives Wait After Plane Crash

French Police and Gendarmerie Alpine rescue units gather on a field as they prepare to reach the crash site of an Airbus A320, near Seyne-les-Alpes, in the French Alps

French fire brigade rescue units gather in a field near a farm building as they prepare to reach the crash site

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Opera singers Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak were among the passengers

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As were 16 students and two teachers from the Joseph-Konig secondary school in the German town of Haltern am See

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School Principal Ulrich Wessel grieves with students in front of the secondary school

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This is because 350mph is the speed a pilot would aim to reach before trying to "relight" the engines after a double engine failure, experts told Sky News.

Flight 4U 9525, which left Barcelona for Dusseldorf at 10.01am (local time), had started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height.

It then plummeted from 38,000ft to 6,000ft in less than eight minutes, before it crashed.

French aviation authorities said the plane did not issue a distress call and lost radio contact with air traffic controllers at 10.30am.

At a press conference this afternoon, a Lufthansa spokeswoman said that the plane departed nearly 30 minutes late.

The plane had undergone routine technical checks,, the spokeswoman added.

Reports in German media suggested that the plane had been grounded for a few hours on Monday due to technical issues.

"We do not want to speculate about what happened aboard that flight - we do not have the information at the moment," the spokeswoman added.

Conditions in the region of the crash were not out of the ordinary, with no significant storms in the area.

Dr Rob Thompson, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, said: "The weather conditions in the area of southern France where the crash is reported to have occurred look like nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year.

"Wind speeds on the ground showed breezy conditions, although this does not indicate the conditions higher up in the atmosphere.

"Available satellite imagery shows there were not any significant storm systems locally.

"Data from lightning detectors show the nearest electrical storms were occurring in Sardinia, some 186 miles off the south coast of France, which would be much too far away to cause any issues to air traffic."

Airbus said a team of its technical advisers has been sent to the scene to help the French air accident investigators.

They are trying to establish what triggered the plane's eight-minute descent before crashing.

The A320 aircraft is one of the most popular passenger planes in the world, used by most airlines.

Known for its efficiency and advanced technology, more than 11,000 orders for planes from the A320 family have been made since its launch in 1987.

Aviation safety expert Alex Macheras told Sky News: "The A320 is used almost by every airline that has short-haul operations, from British Airways to easyJet and American airlines.

"Every airline which operates the short flights goes for the A320 because they are a very efficient aircraft, modern and up-to-date and they have the latest technology on the flight deck which makes flying them a treat."

Captain Mike Vivian added: "It is a very good plane. They are operating all over the world and they are intrinsically a short-haul aircraft and have a very good safety record."

The A320 aircraft family is made up of narrow-bodied short to medium range twin engine jets. The first flight took place on 22 February 1987.

There have been 60 incidents known as "aviation occurrences" since the aircraft family was introduced, resulting in 789 fatalities up to 23 March.

One of the best-known incidents involving an A320 aircraft was the so-called Miracle on the Hudson in which a plane crash-landed in New York's Hudson River. All 155 people on board survived.

The AirAsia plane which crashed into the Java Sea in December was also an Airbus A320.

The Airbus A320 which crashed in France on Tuesday is operated by Germanwings, a budget airline which is wholly owned by Lufthansa. The aircraft was manufactured in 1991.

Germanwings has 81 aircraft operating out of Cologne, Bonn, Hamburg, Berlin and Dusseldorf.

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