Real Life

Germanwings Airbus A320 plane crashes in France claiming the lives of two Australians

A mother and son from Australia are among the 150 passengers killed after a Germanwings airplane crashed in the French Alps.
Germanwings airplane crash

The A320 Airbus was en route to Düsseldorf, Germany, from Barcelona, Spain.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, confirmed that the two Australians were killed among the 150 passengers onboard.

“Sadly I can confirm that there were two Australian citizens on board, a mother and her adult son from Victoria,” she told the media. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.”

The French President, Francois Hollande addressed the public explaining that a number of the passengers on the flight were likely to be German.

Relatives of passengers of the Germanwings plane create a makeshift memorial at the airport

“The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors,” the President explained.

Officials have said the passengers are thought to include 67 Germans, one Belgian, one Dutch national and more than 40 Spanish people. The passenger manifest also included two babies.

Spanish officials have since reported that there were up to 45 Spanish passengers on the plane.

Amongst the victims were 16 students and two teachers from a high school in the small German town of Haltern, who had been in Barcelona for a Spanish language exchange program.

Relatives of passengers of the Germanwings plane create a makeshift memorial at the airport

Distraught classmates of the 16 victims have laid candles outside the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium school.

“It’s the darkest day in this town’s history,” the town mayor, Bodo Klimpel told Reuters.

“It’s the worst thing ever imaginable.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier flew over the site, describing it as “a picture of horror.”

“The grief of the families and friends is immeasurable. We must now stand together. We are united in our great grief”

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