A320 Germanwings

Air investigators have recovered a black box flight recorder of the Germanwings’ A320 aircraft that crashed in the French Alps, killing all the 150 passengers and crew on-board.

France Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve was quoted by Reuters as saying that the black box recorder will be examined immediately.

On its route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, the A320 is reported to have descended 30,000ft in eight minutes before it crashed in northeast of Digne-les-Bains, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.

France Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "A helicopter managed to land (by the crash site) and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors."

Among the victims were 67 Germans, 45 passengers with Spanish names and one Belgian. Around 16 children and two teachers from north-west Germany were also on-board.

"A helicopter managed to land by the crash site and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors."

According to Aviation Safety Network data, the latest accident is the third involving an A320.

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Last December, Indonesia’s AirAsia aircraft crashed into Java Sea and killed all 162 people on-board. In 2007, TAM Linhas Aereas-operated A320 crashed on a runway in Brazil.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers Transport head Philippa Oldham said: "Early data suggests that the Germanwings flight 4U 9525 disaster could be the result of a combination of mechanical failure and pilot error.

"While we don’t know exactly what happened, we can potentially rule out sudden decompression as the plane made a relatively controlled descent of about 3,000 to 4,000 feet per minute.

"This could suggest that the pilot was struggling to control the pitch of the aircraft, due to a servo actuator or hydraulic failure, and was therefore unable to achieve sufficient altitude to clear the mountains."

Image: Airbus A320 of Germanwings that crashed in the French Alps. Photo: courtesy of Sebasstien Mortier.