Spotlight: Crashed German airliner's black box found, investigation under way

French gendarmes late Tuesday found one of the two black boxes of a German passenger plane that crashed in southern France with 150 people on board, while a joint international probe into the cause of the accident is under way.

The black box is used for recording conversations in the cockpit of the ill-fated plane, an Airbus 320 of Germanwings, a low-cost airline owned by German flag carrier Lufthansa, France's BFMTV reported.

The jetliner was on its way from Barcelona, Spain, to the German city of Duesseldorf when it crashed early Tuesday. French President Francois Hollande said there might be no survivors among the 144 passengers and six crew members.

The BFMTV report said the other black box, which is used for storing flight data, has not yet been retrieved, adding that search and rescue operations have been currently suspended but will resume Wednesday morning.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who was at the site of the crash, said the flight recorder would be transferred to investigative services.

"The black box will be analyzed in the coming hours to allow the investigation to move quickly," he said, noting that measures had been taken to prepare the crash zone for the investigation so it could take place under the best conditions.

AOG MODE

The Germanwings plane, which left Barcelona Tuesday morning for Duesseldorf airport, started to descent shortly after reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet and crashed in a snow covered area in southern French Alps.

Causes of the crash remained unclear. The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) has sent investigators to France and a joint investigation by France, Germany and Spain is opened to find out the causes of the tragedy. A group of experts from Lufthansa, Germanwings and Airbus were also dispatched later Tuesday to the crash site.

A spokeswoman for Lufthansa told Xinhua that the plane had a technical problem with its nose landing door and was prevented from flying in Duesseldorf airport Monday.

She thus confirmed a previous report from German Der Spiegel magazine that the plane was in "Aircraft on ground" (AOG) mode one day before its crash.

The problem was then "completely solved" and left "no security risks," stressed the spokeswoman. And the plane returned to normal operation Monday morning.

She declined to confirm another report that several pilots at Germanwings refused to fly planes with the same model as the crashed A320 aircraft, only saying that some pilots could not take up their position due to "personal reasons" which her company could understand.

Earlier Tuesday, Germanwings chief executive Thomas Winkelmann told reporters that the crashed plane received its last "routine check" Monday in Duesseldorf by Lufthansa's technicians.

In Washington, the White House said no signs had emerged about terrorism linked to the crash of the German budget airliner.

"U.S. officials have been in touch with French, German and Spanish authorities and have offered assistance," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.

"There is no indication of a nexus to terrorism at this time," she added.

Meehan said U.S. President Barack Obama had been briefed on the tragedy by Lisa Monaco, his adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and loved ones," she said.

SAME SAFETY STANDARDS

Tuesday's crash came less than three months after 162 people were killed in December last year, when another A320 run by budget airliner Indonesia AirAsia went down in the Java Sea. The crash is still being investigated.

The Germanwings aircraft was delivered to Lufthansa from the Airbus production line in 1991 and transferred to Germanwings in 2014, and media reports said it was one of the oldest planes in the airliner's fleet.

According to data from the Aviation Safety Network, A320 is one of the world's most used passenger jets and has a good safety record.

Germanwings, which has a fleet of around 78 aircraft flying to 130 destinations, plays a key role in Lufthansa's effort to compete against other low-cost carriers in Europe.

Budget airlines, which have won a major share of the European aviation market, have been able to offer low ticket prices as they have squeezed down other costs, by eliminating or charging for services such as meals during flights, as well as reducing ground staff.

Experts say the airlines have rarely been involved in accidents and are subject to the same safety and maintenance requirements in line with aviation standards.

It was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, although accidents during the cruise phase of the flight are rare, they noted. Endi