France says terrorism unlikely in Germanwings crash

Helicopters search over the wreckage of the Germanwings flight — (Image credit: Associated Press/YouTube)

Experts and officials from France, Germany, Lufthansa, and Airbus are trying to piece together why a Germanwings airline crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, presumably killing all 144 passengers and six crew members on board. Nothing has been definitively ruled out, but terrorism is "not a privileged hypothesis at the moment," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told a French radio station on Wednesday.

Searchers have recovered the black box cockpit voice recorder, damaged in the crash, and investigators hope to be able to replay the final conversations "in the coming hours," Cazeneuve said. Air safety analysts not involved in the crash investigation suggest that the Airbus A320 — a plane with a good safety record — descended into the mountainous terrain because the pilots, who did not issue a distress call, had been incapacitated by something like a fire or sharp change in cabin pressure, or the plane's autopilot had malfunctioned, not allowing the pilots to control the plane. In the video below, The Associated Press has more details about the search, plus footage of the wreckage. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.