-- from dusseldorf to barcelona. the black box has been recovered and it is hope that that will help explain the eight minute mystery dissent to disaster. -- dissentescent to disaster.

a german plane carrying 100 50 people crashed en route to dusseldorf from barcelona. they are working on the assumption that this was an accident. two babies and 16 schoolchildren were on board the doomed flight. hundreds of people deployed to the crash site which has been described as remote and difficult to get to. michelle ferguson has the latest. reporter: the first images where the passenger wing crashed likely killing all passengers on board. it could take days to recover

victims from the days debris. >> 300 firefighters and people are here now. they also help with the investigation. all of these exceptional resources are destined to save those that could have survived the crash. even if the intensity does not leave much hope. reporter: german wings says the aircraft descended one minute after reaching cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes before eventually crashing.

the passengers thought to be mainly from germany and spain was a group of teenagers returning. what caused the plane to crash given the pilot had six years experience and thousands of flying hours under his belt? what led to tuesday's tragedy? a lot of unanswered questions tonight as to why that plane fell out of the sky. anchor: douglas has been covering this story throughout the day. it reached the cruising height of 38,000 feet and then lost radio contact. it fell.

>> the plane did not fall out of the sky. it was a very steep -- but it was not knows plunging. in this case, it was 38,000 feet which is well above the highest mountain in the area. 38,000 cruising altitude for most planes. accidents like this are exceptionally rare. we have no idea what precipitated that very rapid and very steep dissent. a little over 2000 meters which is not enough to clear the

mountain peaks in the southern outs. the plane was too low at the bottom of its dissent to clear those mountains. we do not know why the pilots lost contact. we were speaking to an aviation specialist later. communication is the last thing the pilots are thinking of when they are in a potential disaster situation. their first priorities are to navigate and communicate. you and think in the span of a seven to 10 minute window when there was no contact from the pilots, you ask what happened. was the cabin depressurized? was there some sort of other intervention? we are hearing it from the national security council -- they had no indications it was

foul play or terrorism. the investigation is just beginning. anchor: the assumption that this was an accident and everybody's nightmare scenario. whenever we have a story like this, it gets a lot of attention. people really imagine it happening to them. but it is extremely rare, isn't it? >> i will realize a couple of statistics to give you a sense of just how extremely exceptionally rare it is. 1.1 in 4.7 million chance. one in 4.7 million. you have a better chance of winning the lottery tomorrow twice. once in the morning and again in the afternoon. even when you take the airlines with the worst records. not the major ones.

a1 in 2 million chance. there are half a million people in the air. 50000 flights around the day. just last year on the a320 jet that crashed today. these statistics, giving people a sense of how rare. it is a circular argument. these are so tragic because they are rare. when they happen, it captures the world's attention. the images are often absolutely atrocious. they are almost unbearable to look at. you obviously think of the people themselves. you never think that's going to

be you. and when it happens, you instantly make that connection. this was the second deadliest accident on french soil. you had a crash in 1981 in corsica. 16 years ago, you had 113 dead. tragedies of this nature remain embedded and implanted in our imagination because they are such tragedies and because they happen to be rare. anchor: this plane is one of the most commonly used by the airlines. that is -- chris is at the airbus headquarters. reporter: behind me, you can see

the thousands of airbus workers. they want answers. back in 1990, it might seem old, but the company says that it has a whole new avionics suite inside of it. it's a plane that was well up to standards. and he will be there, airbus has sent their own investigators to help with the investigation. anchor: we can go now to the french alps. he has made his way.

reporter: i am 30 minutes away from the side of the crash. we just got here and a fairly remote location. an estimated 300 firefighters deployed in the area. the psychological aspect of the crash.

anchor: you can't get to the crash site by road? will they hold off until tomorrow morning yeah co or will they do something this evening? reporter: for now, they are not looking further in the mountains. the plane crash, apparently, there are several military police affecting the area. but they are not searching.

when you get here, you get a sense that at least one of the roads was blocked. as peacefully as possible, a very small village in the french alps. and the arrival of the press and the firefighters tomorrow. it will be a problem for people protecting the area and conduct in the searches. >> have you gleaned any

information about the nature of the debris? it seems that the violent impact on the ground. >> they would not reveal any information on the extent of the area, but when you travel and get here, this is an area to maintain. it is difficult to get an idea of how widespread the location of the crash everything is made here in order to protect the area and ensure that those in

charge of it is -- this is an area with a mountain area. i think it would be hard to get a sense of that. i was surprised to see that it was cloudy and rainy. not the clear skies people had been talking about. i got the sense it was quite rainy and cloudy. again, we are trying to understand what happened in this crash. anchor: what is the weather forecast looking ahead? the hundreds of police officers and firefighters will try to make it into a very difficult area. you can't get there by road. it's extremely remote if you look on the map. i think you were in the nearest village.

and bringing the victims bodies down to this tiny village. quite an undertaking. reporter: as we got here, it was raining and the sky seems to have feared up a little. the weather in the mountains can be extremely moody. it is difficult to predict. i will be bringing you information as soon as i can. the whole measure being taken. there are still many things that you hear. as for the weather, as i said, it's quite moody here in the mountains.

anchor: it's nightfall and they are going to wait. the airline travel, he told us about features. it's a bit unusual for planes to still be in service many years after it was constructed. reporter: it is a plane that will typically do up to a five hour long route. you will go to the spoke smaller

airports, a bit like an a320 or a boeing 737. it has about 170 feet. this particular aircraft used by german wings, we don't know the exact configuration. when you walk onto the plane and you look at the door which is open, you can see a plot. it's about inside that door that the manufacturing date and the serial number of the aircraft. it is interesting if you look at it. very often you will be on a plane made in the early 1990's. very few airlines are operating

brand-new aircraft all the time throughout their fleet except for the very new airlines like airlines in the middle east. asian airlines that pride themselves with a fleet with an average age of four or five years. the legacy carriers, the big airlines have been in existence for several decades. they will not have a fleet that is for five years old. anchor: speaking to us a bit about the airbus. i am joined in the studio. thanks for being with us. you are a air france pilot. your currently the president of a safety committee. you are deeply saddened as we all were, and you have more insight than the most of us. what is your gut reaction? why did this plane come down in that control dissent? -- controlled descent?

>> the company is a good company. the pilots are good pilots. what was wrong? we don't know. i have thought that they -- [indiscernible] it is very important information. this famous aircraft is not supposed to stall ever. anchor: stall is when you go past the line of gravity? >> you lose list. -- lift. the plaene is going down. there are three ways of going down. either you go straight down like this. like the air asia crash.

and you have a deep stall. which lasts four minutes or 70 seconds or so. or you can have a glide when you lose both engines. the glide can last one to five minutes -- 25 minutes. so that means the aircraft sent message. the airline, it's not mandatory. we have no accounts on board.

that is information. it is the company. and [indiscernible] the system, when something is going wrong, it sends a message. there were 24 messages before it fell. what we can say the president of german wings seems to be very sure of what he's saying. it means that it should not the a terrorist act. anchor: they are going with the

assumption it was an accident. >> something went wrong with the system. anchor: there are several things to take into consideration. the weather was clear but the correspondence told us that it has been cloudy and overcast. a german magazine about their recently being unconfirmed reports. there was a problems with the plane's knows doors. would that be consistent? >> nose doors? ok. it doesn't make a plane crash. it is something very important that the aircraft can fly.

the age of the aircraft is not the point. anchor: are you ruling out technical error? >> it is 50 years old. it's not a problem. anchor: that was the problem with the crash from rio to paris. it finally went to pilot error in that the pilot acted badly. >> the ability of hitting

information was not good at that time. but the industry now, the loss of control. anchor: some said that the airbus control system is too sophisticated. >> i agree with that. some improvements have to be made. they are quite simple. anchor: and that is difficult to manually override the system controls? >> it is. this plane is designed to fly an automatic. it is very easy. when something is wrong with the computer, it's very difficult to fix. anchor: did you come across pot -- problems like that? >> yes. it was 1998.

we collided with a glider wild ascending to montpelier a -- wild ahile descending to montpelier in south of france. we saw the glider enough in advance. the weather was perfect on this day. visibility was 100 miles or so. immediately, i took the control of the aircraft and a push the site stick on the right so we could pass behind the glider. but the system limits the angle of bank to 15 degrees.

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