Germany plane crashed in Alps of france

10.28 German president Joachim Gauck has travelled to the small western town of Haltern to take part in a ceremony to commemorate the 16 children and two teachers from a local school who died in the Germanwings crash in the French Alps, reports Rory Mulholland.

The teenagers from the Jakob-König-Gymnasium school had been returning from a a Spanish exchange programme when they met their deaths.

The school's director on Thursday reacted furiously to the news that the disaster was caused deliberately by the plane's co-pilot.

"It makes us furious, it makes us sad, it leaves us stunned," said Ulrich Wessel.
09.58 France's main pilots' union, SNPL, is to file a legal complaint against "persons unknown" for "breaching professional secrecy" by leaking details of the black box recording before investigators revealed their contents, reports Henry Samuel.
The New York Times revealed early Wednesday that one of the pilots had been locked out and could be heard banging on the door to get back in.
SNPL president Eric Derivry said: "We are particularly shocked that the BEA (air investigation bureau) held a press conference at 5pm saying 'we have nothing to say' and then a few hours later the New York Times gives extremely detailed information that were confirmed by the prosecutor the next day."
"Contrary to all confidentiality commitments on all those involved in the inquiry, there were leaks," he said.
09.55 Germanwings is currently setting up a family assistance centre in Marseille. Germanwing and Lufthansa brought families and friends of the victims to Marseille with three special flights from Düsseldorf and Barcelona yesterday and an additional flight from Barcelona is scheduled for today.
“Our focus in these darkest hours is to provide psychological assistance to the families and friends of the victims of flight 4U9525,” said Thomas Winkelmann, spokesman for the Germanwings Executive Board.
“The suffering and pain this catastrophe has caused is immeasurable. No words can express it and no amount of consolation is sufficient but we want to be there for visiting family members and friends if our support is desired.”
09.18 France's prime minister has called on German airline Lufthansa to provide all information about the Germanwings co-pilot who investigators believe intentionally slammed a plane into a French mountainside, killing all 150 people aboard.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Lufthansa to give all possible information "so that we can understand why this pilot got to the point of this horrific" action.
In an interview with French network iTele, Mr Valls said: "On principle, no line of inquiry can be ruled out. We must wait for the end of the inquiry. Justice owes the truth to the victims' families and loved ones, even if yesterday the prosecutor provided enough details to lead us to believe this was a mad, inexplicable, horrible act that was behind the crash.