the airbus crashed with 150 people on board it belonged to the budget airline germanwings, with which is a subsidiary owned by lufthansadebrings has been found at an altitude of about 2,000 meters. it's tough to get to and rescue crews aren't expected to arrive for sometime yet. 144 passengers and six crew were on board the airbus a320. the french presidents says there are no survivors. let's take a look at an animation that has been create by the website air journey. you can see the flight as it takes off from barcelona. it gains altitude to 38,000 feet, but as it crosses the french coast, it begins to drop dramatically taking just a few minutes to fall to 6,800 feet in the french alps. >> translator: our thoughts are with the families of those who are suffering this terrible loss today. we are offering every means to find out what happened and also the bodies of the victims. it happened in a particularly difficult zone to get to. to rescue services will not be able to give us results for a few more hours. i want all of our services to mobilize. >> let's take you live to colgne. >> translator: [ speaking german ] >> a

the crash is unknown but air experts say there are parallels to another incident involving a lufthansa airbus dive when key sensors iced up and started spitting out false data. those pilots eventually regained control. no distress call came in yesterday so it's difficult to determine why the plane went down. >> normally when you start an emergency dissent and you turn off course a little bit as they did you're going to oncoming traffic and step number one after you get established in the discents is to call air traffic control. >> the airline has not yet released the official manifesto of the barcelona to duesseldorf flight. most of the passengers are believed to be european. french german and spanish leaders will visit the site today. president obama has teams working to confirm if any americans were on board. >>> "good morning america" continues our coverage of the deadly plane crash right after "action news" starting at 7:00 a.m. >> ♪♪ >> and this is new this morning, a gloucester county school district has been the victim of a cyber attack. the swedesboro woolwich school district says it

airbus. germanwings is the subsidiary of lufthansa. 142 passengers on board and six crew. the plane took off from the spanish city of barcelona. they sent out a message at 09:47 "gmt." we don't know what the message contain contained, just it was a distress call. there are a couple of official tweets from the germanwings social media account. the first said we have recently become aware of media reports speculating on the incidence. we don't have our own confirmed information. another tweet, then definite information is available, we shall inform the media. the a-320 is considered to be an extremely safe aircraft. this one, with almost 150 people on board having gone down. we don't know the details of the nationalities of those on board. there are reported to have been two pilots four other crew and 140 passengers. this is the type of aircraft that the germanwings company was using. i like to stress at the moment we don't have a flight number for this plane. we do know that it took off from barcelona on the way to diseldorf. aviation officials said there have been lots of

david soucie in november a lufthansa airbus dropped 4,000 feet in one minute after the autopilot loweredbe looking at the autopilot system of these airbus planes? >> well understand wolf these airplanes have been flying for a long long time and these problems would arise more frequently if it was something that was repetitive. however, that being said it's going to be looked at. every aspect of this airplane is going to be looked at. what has to be done first is find out where you are going going to focus all of your efforts. these investigations could go on for years and years and years. if you say you're going to look at every possibility, which you have to do you have to narrow those possibilities to the most likely and probable and right now we don't have a lot of facts. i would expect that the cockpit voice recorder is going to give us the most of the reasons why, when that's found, and i'm confident it will be and the flight data recorder already in their possession it's going to be analyzed. it won't take very long. it's just a matter of downloading the information onto a computer

lufthansa. el avion airbus 3-20 es un tipo de nave comun... s de cualquier nivel de experiencia. es decir es altamente auto-mati-zado. take fs el presidente de lufthansa a travs de un comunicado de prensa dijo lo siguiente: "desconocemos aun lo que ocurri con el vuelo... enviamos nuestras ms sinceras condolencias para las familias y amigos de los pasajeros y de la tripulacin... si nuestros temores son confirmados este ser un da negro para luftansa. nuestra esperanza es encontrar sobrevivientes." juanfra on camera por supuesto nosotros continuaremos manteniendolo informado con lo ms reciente de este tragico accidente aereo en nuestro noticieron de las 5:30 de la tarde... lorena --- en mxico siguen las investigaciones tras el atentado que sufri el cantante javier rosas en culiacn sinaloa --- en el incidente dos personas resultaron heridas y otras dos perdieron la vida --- --- magali ayala nos tiene los detalles -- take pkg 0:01 0:49 estas es la imagen del cantante javier rosas ensangrentado, luego del atentado que sufri el domingo cuando un coman

david, as you know last november a lufthansa airbus a-321 dropped 4,000 feet in one minute after thatlowered the jet's nose. how closely should investigators be looking at the so-called auto pilot system of these airbus planes? >> very closely and they are. it's something they have looked at since that time. the challenge is going to be even once they find a fix, is the faa ready to make what's necessary, to issue a directive and make this mandatory to be happening right now. that's the tough sell because of the fact that just because something safety happens like that and it's an unusual behavior to ask the airlines to spend millions of dollars to fix something like that is tough for the faa. >> captain, do you have an assessment? >> just responding to that i think there is certainly an ethical and moral issue we will deal with as well. when you are talking about whether the faa will or can or should do it we are completely eliminating the fact the people in the back that are paying for the tickets have absolutely no idea what's going on here. >> one final question before we move on

lufthansa. el avion airbus 3-20 es un tipo de nave comun... e experiencia. es decir, es altamente auto-mati-zado. take fs el presidente de lufthansa a travs de un comunicado de prensa dijo lo siguiente: "desconocemos aun lo que ocurri con el vuelo... enviamos nuestras ms sinceras condolencias para las familias y amigos de los pasajeros y de la tripulacin... si nuestros temores son confirmados este ser un da negro para luftansa. nuestra esperanza es encontrar sobrevivientes." kris on camera pero repitimos que eso no se espera. hay una conferencia de prensa planeada para esta manana... a las siete hora del pacifico...por supuesto tendremos mas informacin para ustedes.... lorena, juan francisco regreso con ustedes... lorena --- entre la vida y la muerte se encuentra el cantante de msica grupera javier rosas tras recibir ms de 20 impactos de bala en un atentado donde perdieron la vida dos de sus acompaÑantes --- juanfra --- sabemos qu este no es el primer acto violento en contra de cantantes gruperos de mxico --- --- ral torres nos ampla la informa

cheryl: we are following the very latest developments in the crash of lufthansa's germanwings airbus incolluding the recent recover of one of the two black box. the plane crashed in a remote area of the french alps, and just moments ago president obama said the u.s. was willing to offer assistance. >> i called german chancellor merkel, and i hoped to -- i hope to speak with the president of spain later today to express the condolences of the american people and to offer whatever assistance we can as they investigate what has proven to be an awful tragedy. cheryl: joining me now with the latest from the crash investigation, fox business' adam shapiro. what do we know at this hour, adam? >> reporter: as you say, they've recovered one of the recording devices. that device will be key in helping explain why this flight, which took off -- and this was the subsidiary of rough tan sa germanwings which is a no-frills discount line -- from barcelona to dusseldorf took off roughly 9:55 a.m. this morning, and then at about 10:53 dis appeared -- disappeared from the radar screen. it reached its

it is a french made airbus 320 which is operated by a subsidiary of lufthansa. rline was a strong record and no previous accident. nbc news af yapgs experts say the airbus 320 from our experience may be automated. they write, we do not yet know what happened to the flight. my deepest sympathy goes to the friends of the family and crew. we hope to find survivors, but again, finding survivors, highly unlikely, according to french president. according to aviation expert, it crashed above altitude where a bird site is likely t. theory of one engine should not be catastrophic. earlier, a press conference was held this morning. we see small details here and there. we will have those for you at this hour. >> we will check back with you in about 15 minute or so. >> a quick look at today's national head leans, senator ted cruz and his wife will be appearing on the "today show" this morning on a first live interview since cruz announced he was running for president. he made the announcement yesterday at a university in virginia. >>> afghan president is discussing issues fo

this plane, airbus 320. lufthansa ceo will be speaking. more on the what the when the where, the who and the why next. i hate cleaning the gutters. have you touched the stuff? it's evil. and ladders... awwwwwww!!!!! they have all those warnings on them. might as well say, "you're going to die, jeff". you hired someone to clean the gutters? not just someone. someone from angie's list. but we're not members. we don't have to be to use their new snapfix feature. angie's list helped me find a highly rated service provider to do the work at a fair price. come see what the new angie's list can do for you. before i had the shooting, burning, pins-and-needles of diabetic nerve pain, these feet grew up in a family of boys... married my high school sweetheart... and pursued a degree in education. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and she prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda-approved to treat this pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suici

are we talking about lufthansa or germanwings airbus and mark chris: we are talking -- airbus?we are talking about german wings primarily. the impact is being felt in some way for german wings. some of the pilots yesterday refused to fly a320's and that is partly in response to the impact the psychological impact i suppose, of the events of yesterday morning. moreover, there might well be a significant knockback from passengers who are booked on german wings. at the moment, there are reports that people are changing their travel plans. the possibility of that will increase over time dependent on what the results of the black boxes produce. anna: i know you said that we don't know what caused this. rescuers have said they are working on the assumption that this is an accident. is there anything you read that leads you to doubt that? chris: none whatsoever at the moment. you can only ever characterize an aircraft accident as an accident until you know differently. it has to be said that all aspects of this incident will be investigated, whether there was anything untoward that oc

lufthansa. the plane was an airbus 320.popular with airlines around the world for short and medium range flights and right now, no one is speculating what happened. the plane sent out a distress call before it went down. >>> it's 5:00 now. let's get you out the door with traffic and weather. roberta i guess sunshine is in our future. right? >> and record warmth. >> we have had a series of string of days of record warmth from february all the way through the month of march. 53 right now in redwood city. clouds north of the golden gate bridge with that slight chance of a couple of sprinkles far northern portion of the bay area. otherwise, partly cloudy east of the bay. partly sunny to the south and 68 degrees in mountain view. we

. >> the airbus a320 is owned by lufthansa tweeting this morning that this is a dark day for lufthansa and changed chair colors from red and yellow to bray and black. 45 minutes into the flight the airbus a320 flying from barcelona to dusseldorf vanished dropping great 38,000 to 6,000' before crashing near a popular ski resort. >> the plane is known as being very good and passed routine investigation yesterday and now a search for answers including why it lost altitude so suddenly and why there was no distress call made. >> the moment we know what went wrong of course, there will be measurements in place to have an incident like this never happen again. >> authorities say the identities of the victims are not available and while this investigation is continuing, white house officials say at this time they do not suspect terrorism. >> firefighters in the east bay are trying to figure what sparked an early morning fire that torched more than two dozen cars before 5:00 a.m. at a car auction lost. 25 vehicles were on fire when they got which because they were so close together on the lot,

olivia: airbus eighta-320, a low-cost carrier of lufthansa.lande saying the crash site will be difficult to accessible to we will continue to cover that story ended back with the latest after the break. "surveillance" back a moment. ♪ tom: good morning everyone. "bloomberg surveillance." i am tom keene. brendan greeley and olivia sterns with us get to a morning must-read. olivia: my morning must-read is from robert reich of the university of california. he is writing in the "huffington post" about why college is not for everybody. professor robert kaplan of the harvard business school still upset with us. professor kaplan, what do you make of what the professor is saying? robert: well, all the data shows that college -- more education, college education is helpful in terms of the rest of your life will stop i think the biggest article he cited is these skills mismatch in the united states. in many cities, there are unemployed and they are skills that have not been employed, and he suggests that more kids go to two-year vocational colleges will

lufthansa. now says its airbus a-320 was at a cruising altitude a mere one minute before it started its descent, before it started that fall. flight 9525 wasn't even midway through its route from barcelona there in spain to dusseldorf in germany when it started a catastrophic eight-minute descent. why this occurred it is way too early to say, but i can report now that one of those black box flight recorders has been found. in fact it's now en route to investigators. that of course could hold the answers as to the why. speaking today, the airline ceo quick to say the captain of this jet was very experienced. >> translator: the captain of the airliner was a captain who had been working for lufthansa and germanwings for over ten years. the model airbus he had actually flown with over 6,000 flight hours. >> joining me now, i have cnn international anchor live for us in london. also with us cnn's safety analyst and former faa safety inspector and author of "malaysia airlines flight 370." we have a lot to pick through. i was reading part of this transcript of your interview with the president of this

the ceo of germanwings airbus company lufthansa. >> but for now, in this dark hour, our thoughts and feelings and prayers are with the relatives of the passengers and of course our crew. cory: spanish and german officials are joining hundreds of french firefighters and police trying to recover bodies. the search will resume tomorrow morning. the plane went down in a remote area that is difficult to access. president obama backed off from plans to cut the size of military force in afghanistan. the president agreed to keep troop levels at the current 9800. president obama: it's the judgment of general campbell and others on the ground that providing this additional time frame, for us to be able to help the afghan security forces succeed, is well worth it. cory: the president is still sticking to his timetable to withdraw nearly all u.s. troops from afghanistan by the time he leaves office in 2017. the president spoke also about the iranian nuclear deal in talks in switzerland this week. take a listen. president obama: i'm confident if there is an agreement, it will be a good agreement

the ceo of germanwings airbus company lufthansa. >> but for now, in this dark

very carefully, but we've got word now breaking news here of an airbus operated by lufthansa's germane feared dead. the president of france says there's no possibility of survivors. and we may be talking about 150 people. we're not sure yet. also ministers from several countries are working on trying to figure out the nationalities and the names of the people onboard. they're working on that. they're working on getting to the families first and then getting the information to us. likely a significant number offer is mans of than flight from barcelona to dusseldorf given this is a heavy vacation time and they use those flights. the accident happened in a zone that is very hard to access according to one expert here on the scene. a spokesman for france for france's aviation authority said the airliner crashed near the town of barcelonnette, 100 kilometers near the french riviera city of nice. the statement of the prime minister's office said the crash happened in a remote and sparsely inhabited commune in the foothills of the french alps. the airbus said it was aware of reports about th

lufthansa knew the copilot to crashed and airbus into the alps had suffered from a depressive episode when he took several months leave during his training for his license. those are the top stories. back with some business news. we will start in the u.k. where a campaign is underway. the economy of course taking center stage. reporter: that is right. conservatives and labor are head to head. it will be interesting to see how voters look to each party. they want to know the economy is in safe hands. the economy grew well last year. unemployment is a low 5.6 percent and consumer confidence is at plus four in march, the highest level it has been in 12 years. now david cameron has warned a labour government would lead to economic chaos and would see a rise in taxes. his conservative government has been criticized for doing not enough to help the middle class. family say they have not felt any benefits from the upturn in the economic turnaround. wages are down and prices are up. josh marty has more. josh: it is a different supermarket, despite they were in work, they are forced to go for

the airbus a320 was operated by lufthansa's budget carrier germanwings. 144 passengers and 6 crew memberswere on board. about an hour into the flight the plane crashed into a mountainside. police and firefighters used helicopters to search the area until sunset. the plane was flying at 38,000 feet when it lost altitude and rapidly descended for eight minutes. the aircraft lost contact with the control tower after it came to an altitude of 6,000 feet. >> for the time being we say it's an accident. there's nothing more that we can say right now. everything else would be speculation. >> reporter: french authorities have set up a task force near the crash site. they say it won't be an easy task. the site is steep and rocky, and debris is scattered for hundreds of meters. dusseldorf airport has become a gathering place for family members. many are in shock. the airline says many of the passengers were germans. 16 students and 2 teachers are believed to have been among them. the group was heading home after taking part in an exchange program in spain. >> translator: i would like to say that the

. >> the airbus a-320 was operated by lufthansa's budget carrier germanwings.t was en route to dusseldorf from barcelona. there were 150 people on board. the head of the investigation agency said the debris at the crash site is not characteristic of a plane that exploded in flight. he said the debris is scattered in a relatively small area suggesting the plane hit the ground and broke apart. french president francois hollande, german chancellor angela merkel and spanish prime minister marian a&e rajoy, gathered near the crash site. they offered encouragement to police and fire officers taking part in the search operation. they also met family members and relatives of the people who were on board the jetliner. >> translator: france will do all it can within its power. the investigation is making progress progress. >> reporter: investigators are trying to find out why the aircraft unexpectedly lost altitude about 30 minutes after takeoff. the plane was flying at 38,000 feet. it descended for eight minutes and lost contact with the control tower after reaching an

. >> reporter: the german giant lufthansa owns the german wings airbus passenger jet that crashed in this area near a popular ski resort. the company confirming 150 passengers and crew were on board at the time and all are feared dead, including 16 students and two teachers from germany on an exchange trip. >>. >> translator: we are in a deep state of shock. it's the worst thing imaginable. >> reporter: heart sick family and friends are now gathering at airports in spain and germany for any news. officials say so far they know about 45 minutes into its flight from barcelona to dusseldorf the plane lost altitude for eight minutes. why? they don't know. >> for the time being, we say it's an accident. there is nothing more that we can say. >> reporter: the airbus a320 previously captured in this amateur video according to company officials, passed its routine inspection just yesterday. they also say the pilot was experienced. so they don't know why there was no distress call from the cockpit. >> germany and spain are among our strongest allies. america stands with them at this moment of

it is a french airbus 320 this is a subsidiary of the lufthansa group. tom kass tell lo reports it is heavily automated with a lot of redundant computer programs as well. the morning, the head of lufthansa writes, we do not yet know what has happened to that flight. my deepest sympathies goes to the family and friends of the passenger and crew. we confirm this was a black day for lufthansa. the french president says finding survivors is very unlikely. the passenger manifest is being verified as we speak and they say a press conference at 7:00 this morning, we expect we will get more details before then. again, the passengers and crew count has gone up. it is now 139 confirmed by germany. >> so much more information coming in. our coverage will continue all morning long. chris will join us with a irve loo report coming up in about half an hour with the latest updates. a villejo women police say may have been kidnapped. >> bob, no trace of the actual woman? >> reporter: right, they found her car abeen donned. you see behind me the solana office of emergenc

the airliner was an airbus a-320, and the flight number was aipx and the airliner was delivered in 1991 to lufthansa and from that point in time it flew for lufthansa and since january of 2004 it flew on behalf of germanwings. the last route checkine check of this airliner occurred yesterday on 23rd of march in dusseldorf carried out by technicians and engineers of lufthansa. the last big check of the airliner was routinely done as per manual in summer 2013. the captain of the airliner was a captain who had been working for lufthansa germanwings for over ten years. the model airbus he had actually flown with over 6,000 flight hours. a team of german wings is in dusseldorf at this moment in time in order to support the relatives of all of those passengers on the flight list. they'll be informed at this moment in time and please bear in mind that we of course have to inform first the relatives of the passengers died before we inform you. germanwings and all of the team of the engineers, technicians are on their way to the crash site. in order to support the investigation of the crash. in order to find

would lose his eyesight and that means he wouldn't move up in the chain of command from the airbus to the big lufthansa. >> i read a little bit about the eye problem. that doesn't make sense to me. that would wipe you out for everything. on the mental illness side clearly that's going to be aic big factor if that person was to continue on and fly as a career or not. this happens, and people do try to mask that. you get a -- if you are a first officer you get one physical a year. if you are a captain, you get two. and as far as your mental well-being, that's checked when you get hired by the company you are flying with. and also when you get your acp or commercial pilot's rating. they are going to look if you are of sound mind. again, that's very subjective. and you are really not going through a battery of tests with psychiatrists when you go in for that license. so this is a place that i would say in the future is going to go to be tightened up. >> you talk about tightening up. we had that after 2009, the koegan airlines crash, the propeller turbine prop plane crashed. turns out that the copilot of th

the airbus a320, operated by germanwings, part of lufthansa was on its way from barcelona to dusseldorf. there was no word of trouble from the cockpit. the twin-engine jet was reduced to confetti that allowed no hope for any of the 144 passengers and crew of six. most were german or spanish. we have extensive coverage tonight, beginning with mark phillips near the scene of the crash. >> reporter: the plane went down in the hostile landscape of the french alps. trying to find the wreckage became the first priority. there was never any real hope of finding survivors. to make matters worse, more snowt, is forecast, which will make retrieving the bodies of victimsge and examining the wreckage tode determine why this plane went down all the more difficult. flying conditions even for helicopters is expected to deteriorate, and there are few roads or trails. jean louis bietrix, a hiker, was accompanying a rescue team to the crash site. "there are no pieces anymore," he said. "there is nothing. the plane had totally disappeared." the plane had climbed steadily10 after its 10:01 departure from b

. >> the airline, germanwings, it's a budget carrier of lufthansa, now says it was an airbus 320 at aising altitude a mere one minute before it began falling. flight 9525 wasn't even midway through its route from barcelona down in spain, if you can follow the red line up toward that intended final destination of dusseldorf germany, when it started this catastrophic eight-minute descent some 44 minutes into this flight. why that happened that is still too early to determine. but one of the black boxes, specifically the flight data recorder has been found. that is now en route to investigators. and at least preliminary answers could be just hours away. i have a cnn aviation analyst with me. also cnn's safety analyst, former faa safety inspector. so gentlemen, let's just -- david, let me go to you first this time. as you are assessing and looking at this video where you see some of these searchers beginning this process of mapping out -- and who knows how massive a debris field this could be. but can you just begin to explain how this process works, how they find and identify these husba

translator: the captain of the airliner was a captain who had been working for lufthansa germanwings for over ten years. the model airbus, he had actually flown with over 6,000 flight hours. >> our live coverage begins this hour with cnn's karl penhaul who's live in barcelona and jim bittermann who's live in paris. let me begin with you, jim. set the scene for me now. what is happening in france to locate that damage and get people to the scene? >> reporter: well, in fact, there are about 500 people around the scene trying to get to the actual crash site. just in the last hour or so, ashleigh, we've heard from a french member of parliament who was with the interior minister, the french interior ministry went down to the site and flew over the site in his helicopter. and the member of parliament described it this way, he said there are no more pieces of the plane, only debris. the remains of men, women and children on the site. it's a very high-mountain grade, no trees, sad and dark. he said that there was absolutely no reason for him to believe that anyone survived this crash. and we have seen some still photos from the

airbus. germanwings is the subsidiary of lufthansa. 142 passengers on board and six crew.ne took off from the spanish city

lufthansa. what it does is tends to concentrate on that european union flights intereuropean union flights. it has around 80 airliners and very many of those are airbuscraft, a319s and 8320s. it employs around 2,000 people and is seen as being a very good service for lufthansa, which allows it to operate in a market that as a larger airliner it wouldn't want to be in perhaps and similar to other things similar airliners have done by bringing in subsidiaries to take on the no frills markets as it were. you can fly from frankfurt and other airports here in germany to destinations right around the european union and of course using airliners such as the a320 because germanwings has 15 or 16 of them, so there will be a deep concern on the part of germanwings that an airliner it places such a relevance upon has had such a tragedy. >> we are hearing from spoken's deputy prime minister that 45 passengers onboard are believed to be spanish. spain's deputy prime minister saying 45 of the passengers on the crashed germanwings plane are believed to be spanish. that's giving us now a clearer picture of the makeup of the nationalities onboard dominic. >> you hear

authorities say nothing was left of the airbus a320 but debris and bodies. 150 people aboard the flight are presumed to be dead. the germanwings parent company lufthansathey were deeply shocked by the crash whose cause remains industry. they are operating under the assumption that it was an accident. sarah: 67 people were german nationals aboard the flight, including a group of 16 schoolchildren returning from an exchange in spain. another 45 passengers appear to have been spanish. that's all for this edition of the journal. we will update you again at the top of the hour with the latest. ben: see you then. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ñÑ?Ñ?oñ highlights edition from our studios at brandenburg gate. here's a quick look at some of the top stories for today. >> why it's sometimes tough in germany to give and take a compliment. >> swiss author martin suter presents his newest book "montecristo." >> we visit the country's most popular attraction in oslo. >> his fashions are wild rebellious, extravagant. some would even say garish. but philipp plein

ceo of lufthansa tweeted, my deepest sympathy is with all the relatives and friends of our passengers and crew. and just a little about the plane now. the plane was an airbus 320, very popular with airliners around the world for short and medium range flights. german wings is lufthansa's lower cost subsidiary. in fact, pilots at lufthansa have walked off the job a number of times because lufthansa wants to transfer more flights from the main airliner to the cheaper german wings unit. right now, nobody is speculating on what happened whether it was mechanical or something else. we do know that the plane did send out a distress call right before it crashed. >>> a woman in vallejo is missing this morning. police believe she may have been kidnapped and her kidnapper may be holding her for ransom. her name is denise huskins. she is 30 years old and a witness told police he saw her being taken against her will on kirkland avenue on mare island. ryan takeo is in that neighborhood this morning. >> reporter: we're right by a staging area here, michelle. oes is here, also the county has some other crews here, sheriff's department is here at this staging area. search

ceo of lufthansa tweeted, my deepest sympathy is with all the relatives and friends of our passengers and crew. and just a little about the plane now. the plane was an airbusvery popular with airliners around the world for short and medium range flights. german wings is lufthansa's lower cost subsidiary. in fact, pilots at lufthansa have walked off the job a number of times because lufthansa wants to transfer more flights from the main airliner to the cheaper german wings unit. right now, nobody is speculating on what happened whether it was mechanical or something else. we do know that the plane did send out a distress call right before it crashed. >>> a woman in vallejo is missing this morning. police believe she may have been kidnapped and her kidnapper

germanwings jet owned by lufthansa was carrying 150 people on board from barcelona, spain, to dusseldorf, germany. all on board are presumed dead. we want to show you video of the airbus that crashed today. these pictures were taken last year. a safety directive about possible errors with the plane's sensors went out last year when another lufthansa flight unexpectedly dropped altitude. at least one of the plane's two black boxes have been recovered tonight. the airline held a news conference late today but had little information about what happened. >> our main focus now is really on the investigation, and of course besides that on the support of the relatives and friends of the passengers and our crew. >> of those on board, 18 were students and chaperones from this german high school. the town's mayor calls their loss the worst thing to happen to the town ever. so far there's no word of any americans on board this flight but the state department is investigating. our coverage continues on "nightly news." we're going to take a closer look at who was on board that plane, including the group of students as well as two famous opera singers. "nightly news" begins at 5:30

airbus 320. a budget airline separated by lufthansa. officials do not expect any survivors. turkish and german citizens including 16 students and two teachers from a school outside dusseldorf. investigators admit there are very few clues as to what went wrong. what we do know less than an hour into the flight the plane made an orderly descent at 38,000 feet down to 8,000 feet when all contact was lost. right now the french president and the spanish king are in emergency meetings in paris as search teams and helicopters assemble near the crash site. the state department is reviewing whether any u.s. citizens were on board that flight. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. let's go to the latest on that crash of germanwings flight 4u9525 joining us now is tom costello, our aviation expert. and reporting from paris for nbc news is ann curry. tom, what do we know about what happened and why that plane went from 38,000 feet to cruise altitude all the way down to 8,000 feet? >> let me give you a couple of headlines if i could. i've been trying to work the story for the last

and lufthansa has one of the best safety records in the world. now, the plane that crashed yesterday, the airbus a320 is also one of the safest and most used in the world. >> it's so interesting, too, the decline in oil prices means so many of these airlines have more money to invest in newer planes and to give their employees, so they have been seeing an economic boom of late. but clearly the safety issue, a lot of people talking about these flights that have gone down over the past year. thank you so much. nice to see you. >>> happening now, the rift widening between the u.s. and israel. president obama with new criticism this morning of prime minister netanyahu. plus a new plan for u.s. troops to remain in afghanistan. next. when salesman alan ames books his room at laquinta.com, he gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can check in and power up before his big meeting. and when alan gets all powered up, ya know what happens? i think the numbers speak for themselves. i'm sold! he's a selling machine! put it there. and there, and there, and there.

that we are indeed in constructive dialogue with the spanish, german authorities and airbus authorities and with lufthansalad that the first flight recorder has been retrieved yesterday and the french authority confirmed just a few hours ago that one of the audio streams is readable so we expect, hopefully over the next days more information and we of course hope that the rescue teams move very soon to find the second flight data recorder as well which would then provide us with the complete picture of the accident. and after i visited the site yesterday, i'm very sure that we will be able to find out the cause of this terrible accident as soon as we have both data recorders retrieved. running an airline and endure -- and during such an accident is terrible. we all in lufthansa do our very best to help those who have been affected and we know we can never make up the loss. so that is why i'm here to help those -- to help the people here in spain and this meeting, i must say was emotional and it was showing us that this accident has caused terrible pain. thank you. >> we've been listening to the ceo of luf

airbus 320 anywhere near. >> officials with the airlines parent company lufthansa say they're speechless that the co-pilot would deliberately crash the plane killing everyone on board, 150 people. what do we know about this co-pilot? he's identified as andreas lubitz 28 years old, a german national. he had been with the airline since september of 2013. let's bring in our senior international correspondent. you just had an exclusive interview with the lufthansa ceo. tell us what he told you. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. i just talked to carsten spohr about a wide range of issues pertaining to this case. there were two main points. one of them was the mental stability of this co-pilot. he said there were absolutely no indications at least to lufthansa that he might have been mentally instable that he might have had any sort of depression issues. he also said he believes this is what he calls an isolated case. there was no indication of this. this is not an indication that perhaps their system of evaluating mental issues with their pilots might be flawed. however they also said they would re-evaluate it as well.

airbus airplanes. as well as of course employees of germanwings and lufthansa. so those are all of the partners included in this investigation. in terms of our internal investigation, let me try and explain this quite simply. there's one person who's kind of the leader of this entire investigation. we have one person who's assisting him. and then we have three primary groups that are going to be a little more specialized. one air traffic group that's going to be researching the history of this plane, its maintenance, the state it was in, one group that's going to be taking care of what happened on the ground and then of course one group for the air operations. how the plane was being conducted while it was in the air. so i'd just like to remind you all that this organization has also called in a number of people who are not members of our organization. but again, our partners in germany and in spain. so we have researchers. we have investigators from those two other organizations who will be present. and as well the others who i just mentioned earlier will also

that flight was an airbus a320 operated by german wink, a low-cost airier own by lufthansa airlines. it was flying from barcelona, spain, to dusseldorf germany. rescue officials say ten police officers will spend the night at that crash site in a mountain to guard it. the search will resume at daybreak but there's no hope they say of finding any survivor survivors. >> the recovery soerpgs expected to last at least a week. the impact of plaep was so great the biggest piece of debris left is only about the size of a car. jim handly has more with what we learned today. >> nbc news is getting new information tonight from the former head of france's bureau of investigation for aviation. it's their version of the ntsb. he says tonight that the plane was flying very fast at impact, about 435 miles an hour. and he says it's unusual that there was no distress signal sent from the cockpit. the black box that was recovered today has already been sent to paris for analysis. we should have some answers tomorrow morning about that plane's final moments. french president francois hollande and germa

airbus a320. it's nearly 20 -- the first flight was in 1990. lufthansa took it into service a year later. the plane's logged more than 58,000 flight hours and 46,000 flights. it went through a routine check just yesterday. joining mess is jay rollins, a retired american alliance cappon and former u.s. navy pilot. on skype debra hersman, president and ceo of the national safety council, the former chair of the national transportation safety board, and bob hagel, who has covered aviation for nbc news for 25 years. thank you all for being here. bob, let me go to you first. you have reported on a lot of airline disasters. what similar are there to other crashes in this? >> immediately i think of flights where there's been some problem at full altitude like this one. that is so unusual, as you said but air france just a few years ago over the atlantic when it was a failure of the navigation equipment. twa 800 over long island. that was at 10,000 feet so pretty well up there when the center fuel tank exploded. there was a decompression of the private jet carrying the golfer payne stewart a numb

that flight was an airbus a320 operated by german wink, a low-cost airier own by lufthansa airlines.flying from barcelona, spain, to dusseldorf germany. rescue officials say ten police officers will spend the nig

the plane was an airbus a320 similar to the one on the screen. operated by germanwings. lufthansa's budget carrier. officiales say debris from the crash has been spotted but the search and rescue operation is expected to be difficult because of plane crash in a remote area. stay with nbc 10 for continuing coverage of this breaking news. >>> and we just learned the identity of a woman killed in an accident this morning. police say 28-year-old christie massey of bensalem died in that accident. police are questioning two drivers. the accident happened at the intersection of knights and street road where nbc 10's jesse gary is live. what has -- that intersection has been open i believe, for a while now. tell us what the latest is going on there. >> reporter: well, vai, the intersection is open. you can see the traffic is moving freely behind me. but the investigation into this fatal pedestrian vehicle accident is ongoing. detectives say around 5:45 this morning, bensalem resident miss massey was walking north on knights road crossed against the red traffic signal and was hit by two cars

reveals the german co-pilot was alone at the controls when the airbus 320 crashed, killing an 150 people on board. >> translator: we from lufthansa are speechless that the aircraft was deliberately crashed by the co-pilot. >> reporter: the recording lets the co-pilot didn't let the captain back into the cockpit after he stepped out, presumably to use the restroom after the plane reached cruising altitude. one alone, lubitz activated the steady descent of the plane and he didn't respond to multiple efforts by air traffic controllers to reach him. >> translator: he used a button to lose altitude for reasons unknown, but they could be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to destroy the aircraft. >> reporter: the pilot can be heard knocking, eventually banging on the door. but it remained locked from the inside. from the audio, investigators say lubitz's breathing was steady until the plane crashed into the mountains. and there was no indication he was experiencing a medical emergency. but he didn't utter a word. officials say there was no way for the flight crew to activate any sort of distress signal from outside of the cockpit. the

airbus 320. will ripley joins me from colon, germany, the headquarters of lufthansa, the parent company of germanwingswill i know you have new information coming out about what investigators have found inside andreas lubitz's apartment. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah. there are several reports that are coming out right now, poppy. a prominent german newspaper here copping out with a startling revelation that investigators found evidence of severe psychological problems including medications to treat those psychological problems in the apartment of the 27-year-old co-pilot andreas lubitz. now, specifically according to "the new york times," these were antidepressant medications. and we saw yesterday when we were out at the apartment investigators on several occasions going in gathering evidence and coming back out. apparently those investigators or people close to the investigation are leaking information to thee newspapers because officially this information has not been released. but the discovery of prescription drugs, possibly antidepressants, in this apartment is significant because it co

deliberately fly an airbus 320 into the mountains killing everyone on board, we have just concluded an exclusive interview with the ceo of the parent airline of germanwings, lufthansao learn more about what they're finding out. have you learned from the ceo what led them to make such a conclusive decision so quickly about this co-pilot and this deliberate act? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. that was certainly one of the things. we talked about a wide range of issues. the other one pertains to the identity of the co-pilot himself. also what kind of guy the co-pilot was. certainly the main thing initially that we talked about was how they could be so sure that they actually did all of this deliberately, how he could be so sure that there was a criminal intent behind all this. let's listen in to what carsten spohr had to say. >> after the captain left the cockpit, he tried to regain access. there were knocks on the doors according to the french authorities and the door was either kept locked or not opened in the way it was supposed to be. and that for sure is a clear indication that the remaining co-pilot didn't want the captain to return. >> reporter: so i also asked

a passenger plane operated by lufthansa's germanwings airline has crashed in southern france with nearly 150 people on board. the airbus 320 was flying from barcelona to dusseldorf when it went down in the french alps. french president francois hollande said there are likely no survivors. texas republican senator and tea party favorite ted cruz has announced his candidacy for president. in a speech at the evangelical liberty university, cruz rolled out an agenda which includes reversing obamacare, militarizing the borders rolling back abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and strengthening support for israel. >> i believe in you. i believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of america. and that is why today, i am announcing that i am running for president of the united states. [applause] instead of a president who boycotts prime minister netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of israel. amy: the american civil liberties union has filed an emergency motion to block wisconsin's voter id law after the supreme court rejected an appeal