The Germanwings Airbus320 that just crashed in the French Alps was suspiciously Terrorism. It supposedly flew for about 30 minutes after losing power to one engine. It hit very hard. The debris field is very small meaning either it hit a vertical mountain or it flew into the ground very fast. The debris is pulverized. The aircraft hit hard meaning it was traveling very, very fast.
The Airbus 320 is able to safely fly on only one engine,—
especially if, as here, it is not heavily loaded. The pilot would likely look for a safe alternate airport to land but it would drift down to the maximum single engine altitude which is what it appears to have been doing. The max single engine altitude for a medium loaded A320 would be 22,600 feet, high enough to safely complete the flight all the way to Dusseldorf. The highest obstacles would be Mont Blanc at 15,780 feet and the Matterhorn 14,692 feet, much lower than the 22,720 single engine operating altitude. The Germanwings A320 flying on one engine could safely fly over any mountains in it’s path.
Ground control received no communication during the last 30 minutes of the flight. That’s suspicious. If the aircraft was on autopilot; if both pilots were incapacitated, it would have continued on course, as it did, until it was no longer able to maintain altitude. If it was unable to maintain altitude the pilots would have so advised ground control. That they did not is very suspicious. They would have had to be incapacitated or perhaps dead.
Terrorism? There seems to be no second answer at this stage. Perhaps as more is known it will be proven or perhaps there’s a serious and mysterious malfunction that causes Airbuses to crash. That’s possible but highly unlikely. The pilots would be aware of any such problem.
It’s Terrorism until proven otherwise. That’s the prudent way to proceed.
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