Germanwings Crash: Airline Cancels Flights After Crew Members Decide Not to Fly
Airline says it understands the crew members' decision.
-- Germanwings was forced to cancel seven flights out of Dusseldorf because a number of crew members felt they were unfit to fly following the news of Flight 9525's crash, the airline said tonight.
An Airbus operated by Germanwings crashed Tuesday in the Alps in southern France with 144 passengers, including two babies, and six crew members on board.
Germanwings said in a statement this evening that some crew members decided not to operate aircraft today after they heard of the crash.
"We understand their decision," Germanwings Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann said. "Some flights had to be cancelled."
The crash took place in a remote part of the French Alps. French President Francois Hollande said there are "apparently no survivors."
The passenger jet, an Airbus A320, crashed near the town of Digne as it traveled from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
One black box has been recovered, according to a spokesman for the French Interior Ministry. That box was en route to the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses, the French authority in a Paris suburb responsible for safety investigations in civil aviation, authorities said.