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The Airbus operated by Lufthansa's budget airline 'GermanWings' that crashed in the French Alps yesterday made no radio contact whatsoever for the entire 8 minutes was roaring straight into the mountains (from 32,000 ft)... add to that the fact that no apparent effort was made to override computer controls, the German pilots' experience, the airline's perfect safety record... you can see why the other pilots would now like an explanation before they drag another 150 people to a horrific death. The pilots were likely either unconscious, bound, or dead- those are pretty much the only logical conclusions. If it was the...

Airplanes don't just fall out of the sky. The Germanwings plane that crashed Tuesday in France was at the safest part of flight. Yet, something went horribly wrong, leading to the death of 150 passengers and crew. The first clue about what could have happened will be the wreckage itself. If the debris field is pretty compact, the plane most likely hit the mountains intact. If it is scattered, the plane probably broke up midair.

(CNN) - A Germanwings Airbus A320 plane carrying at least 148 people crashed Tuesday in mountainous southeastern France, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters. Valls said he fears those aboard the flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany -- 142 passengers and six crew members -- may be dead. French President Francois Hollande also said no survivors were expected. The plane crashed near Digne les Bains, in the Alpes de Haute Provence region, Valls said."The conditions of the accident are not yet clear but lead us to believe there will be no survivors," Hollande said. The crash happened...

FULL TITLE: Search aircraft find the remains of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 scattered all over an alpine mountainside: Riddle over why pilots didn't send SOS despite taking eight minutes to fall 32,000 feet The final moments of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 were shrouded in mystery today after air traffic controllers claimed they received no SOS despite the jet nosediving 32,000ft in just eight minutes. All 144 passengers and six crew were today presumed dead after the Airbus A320 crashed in a remote region of the French Alps en route from Spain to Germany. Two babies were among 45 Spanish on...

"An Airbus A320 has crashed in the southern French Alps, a security source has said." & "A Germanwings A320 has crashed in the southern French Alps, according to security sources."

An Airbus passenger jet has crashed in the area of Digne area of southern France, according to police and the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC). The A320 was carrying 142 passengers and six crew members, according to the DGAC. The plane – operated by Lufthansa subsidiary, Germanwings – was flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

Germany’s pilots and train drivers are taking it in turns to bring the country to a standstill with strikes that have cost the economy tens of millions of euros in the last two weeks. Are unions abusing their power or standing up for their rights? After a 50-hour strike by the train drivers unions, GDL, Deutsche Bahn said the loss of the weekend’s services cost the company “tens of millions of euros”. One analyst said that the latest strike in escalating industrial action by pilots union Cockpit will cost Lufthansa €30 million. But all parties accuse the other of the...

Germany’s largest airline, Lufthansa, says it is canceling all flights to Tel Aviv for at least another 24 hours because of ongoing safety concerns. […] The European Aviation Safety Agency on Tuesday strongly recommended that airlines not fly to Tel Aviv after a Hamas rocket exploded near the Ben Gurion airport. …

Last week’s three-day strike at Lufthansa drew attention to structural problems at a company that is critical to Germany’s globalized economy. The flag carrier is losing ground against competitors, but its pilots are remaining firm. […] (Vereinigung Cockpit)’s slogan for the strike, “Stop the profit greed” […] ended up backfiring on the pilots’ union. In the public and the press, on television and in many Internet forums, discussions of the pilots’ strike, instead of triggering debates over greedy fund managers, were focused on the pilots themselves. People across Germany were talking about whether the strike was justified or excessive. The...

A pilots’ strike in Germany last week has highlighted the power comparatively small groups of employees have to lay low key areas of the economy in pursuit of their own interests. And the German government is looking to draw up legislation later this year to prevent this from happening again. “One company, one wage agreement” is the motto behind a proposed “Tarifeinheit” or unified wage-bargaining mechanism masterminded by Labour Minister Andrea Nahles. Over three days last week, the cockpit pilots’ union effectively grounded the country’s biggest airline Lufthansa in a dispute over pay and early retirement entitlements. …

An overwhelming majority of Lufthansa pilots voted on Friday to go on strike over pay and conditions. No date has yet been set for the action. Of the airline's 5,400 pilots, 99.1 percent voted to take industrial action on Friday. The as-yet unscheduled strike could hit Europe's biggest airline any time in the coming weeks. Flights operated by Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings will be affected. Pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said it would give 48 hours' notice before any strike, in order to minimise inconvenience to passengers. Pilots would also avoid the busy period over the Easter break from...

Five men have been taken into custody as suspects in the 1978 Lufthansa heist at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, an FBI spokeswoman says, according to Reuters. More than $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels were netted in the heist, which took place on Dec. 11, 1978 and was made famous in the 1990 film “Goodfellas.”

A German court in Hessen ruled Tuesday that night flights will be banned at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) when the fourth runway opens Oct. 21 (ATW Daily News, Oct. 5). The ban, which runs from 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., will affect 17 movements of mainly cargo flights. Lufthansa Cargo, which operates 11 scheduled nighttime slots, is expecting considerable financial damage from the night ban as it must now reschedule or cancel several flights beginning with the winter schedule. Resident complaints of aircraft noise from nearby Russelsheim and Offenbach were the reason for the court ruling. During the summer season, FRA...

A Jumbo jet, with 286 passengers on board, had a terrifying near miss when it was forced to screech to a halt to avoid colliding with another plane that had turned into its path. The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was accelerating along a runway as it prepared to take off at Kennedy Airport, New York, when it narrowly avoided slamming into an EgyptAir Boeing 777.

A cargo plane owned by Lufthansa crashed in Riyadh on Tuesday injuring the two-man crew, the German airline said, confirming earlier statements by a Saudi official The Lufthansa Cargo MD-11 flying 80 tonnes of freight from Frankfurt to the Saudi capital crashed at 11:38 am (0838 GMT), Lufthansa Cargo said. Both pilots suffered minor injuries and were immediately hospitalised. "The captain and the co-pilot are in good health; they only had minor injuries," Khalid al-Khaibri, a spokesman for the Saudi civil aviation authority told AFP. The German airline said "it is not yet known exactly what type of freight it...

SNIPPET: "BERLIN: The take-off of a German flight to Tokyo was delayed after two dozen Japanese tourists on board fell ill with violent stomach cramps, German police said. Shortly before take-off on Saturday afternoon, the Airbus A340 carrying some 300 passengers returned to the airport terminal in Berlin after the tourists complained of stomach pains and nausea, said a police statement." SNIPPET: "The victims also complained of vertigo, vomiting and circulation problems, according to doctors, though their lives were not thought to be in danger, said the police statement. Doctors were still trying to ascertain what had caused the sickness,...

Per Fox News... The person who owned the bags stayed behind.

It may trail the historic impact of Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, but the Spirit of St. Louis also did not have a wingspan wider than a football field or space for more than 500 passengers. For plane builder Airbus and German airline Lufthansa AG, the A380's first flight to North America on Monday is a chance to show off the superjumbo to potential U.S. buyers and to the airports they hope will be flight bases for the double-decker jet. "We're talking about an airplane that is representing aviation in the 21st century in terms of efficiency,"...

I saw this contest on the Lufthansa website and thought it might be of interest to fellow aviation buffs. Lufthansa, always on the forefront of aviation innovation, has placed one of the first orders for the Airbus 380, the largest and newest passenger plane on earth. The US debut of this aircraft is set for March 19th at JFK Airport in NYC. To commemorate this auspicious occasion, Lufthansa is holding a sweepstakes! One lucky winner plus a guest will be selected on March 13 to attend an exclusive reception and VIP tour on board the A380. Enter here!

SEATTLE, Dec. 06, 2006 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and Deutsche Lufthansa AG today announced the carrier ordered 20 747-8 Intercontinental jetliners plus 20 purchase rights. Lufthansa is the first airline to place an order for the passenger version of the fuel-efficient airplane. The Lufthansa order, with a total average list-price value of $5.5 billion, is scheduled for delivery beginning in 2010. This order is a primary component of the airline's plan to modernize its fleet and increase environmental stewardship. "Lufthansa operates one of the youngest and most environmentally friendly fleets in the world," said Scott Carson, president and...