Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
Germanwings Flight 9525
Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Lufthansa. On 24 March 2015, the Airbus A320-211 operating the flight crashed 100 km north-west of Nice in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
French Alps
The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy.
Suicide by pilot
Suicide by pilot is an aviation event in which a pilot deliberately crashes or attempts to crash an aircraft as an act of suicide, with or without the intention of causing harm to passengers on board or civilians on the ground. If others are killed, it may be considered an act of murder–suicide. It is suspected to have been a possible cause in several commercial and private aircraft crashes and has been confirmed as the cause in other instances. Determining a motive can be challenging and sometimes impossible for investigators to conclude especially if the suspected pilot sabotages or disengages their in-flight recorder or in-flight tracker. In the United States, investigations are primarily undertaken by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
March 24
March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 282 days remain until the end of the year.