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AP PHOTOS: An arduous search, grief and horror. Looking back at the 2015 Germanwings crash

Via AP news wire
Sunday 23 March 2025 07:16 GMT

First, the plane disappeared from radar screens somewhere over the French Alps, on March 24, 2015.

Then, families of the 150 people aboard Germanwings Flight 9525 started showing up at airports. In Barcelona, Spain, where loved ones had boarded the plane, and Duesseldorf, Germany, where loved ones were meant to land.

Airport screens showed a blank spot where the flight's arrival time should have appeared.

Soon, search teams fanned out over treacherous mountainsides, rappelling off helicopters or scaling barren slopes.

At last, the first signs of debris appeared. Then, human remains.

Eventually, the plane's black boxes were found, allowing investigators to piece together the plane's final moments.

It was no accident. French and German investigators concluded that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit, and intentionally crashed.

Local hamlets welcomed search teams and families as they waited, worried and began to grieve. Today, the village of Le Vernet hosts a monument honoring the dead, rising above a meadow overlooking Alpine peaks.

On Monday, Le Vernet will host families for a memorial ceremony and a moment of silence at 10:41 a.m., exactly 10 years after the crash.

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