Economy of Germany

French aviation experts examining the black box and recordings from the Germanwings flight believe that the crash may have been a deliberate, suicidal choice by the pilot in the cockpit. The audio reports show that one of the pilots, the more experienced of the two, remained locked outside the cockpit.

BELGRADE - No Serbian nationals were on board the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps, killing all 144 passengers and six crew members, the Serbian Foreign Ministry told Tanjug on Wednesday.

"Based on the list of names that we have seen, there were no Serbian nationals on board," the ministry's press service said.

A number of pilots at German low-cost airline Germanwings refused to fly Wednesday following the deadly crash in the French Alps, saying they were mourning the victims of the doomed aircraft.
      

French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy arrived near the site of the German airliner that crashed in the French Alps.
      
The three leaders, looking sombre and dressed in black, met rescue workers and police outside the crisis centre set up in the wake of Tuesday's disaster, in which 150 people were killed.

Hundreds of people are taking part in a rescue operation in the French Alps after a Germanwings airplane with 150 people on board went down near Barcelonette in Southern France while en route from Spain to Düsseldorf.

All 144 passengers and 6 crew are feared dead, and the EU Commission has declared three days of mourning over the incident.

The first pictures from the region in the French Alps near the spot where the Airbus A320 of Germanwings airline (low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa) crashed on Tuesday, carrying 144 passengers and six crew members have been released.

Many rescue services and helicopters participate to the search.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta stated, on Tuesday, that he is shocked by the news of the air crash in France and declared that his thoughts go towards the families and close ones of the victims of the crash.

Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES PHOTO

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu has sent, on Tuesday, his condolences to the families of passengers aboard the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps.

Photo credit: (c) Ilie BUMBAC / AGERPRES PHOTO

"It is a great loss and tragedy", said Aurescu, in a tweet.

Germanwings has issued a statement saying there were 144, and not 142, passengers on board its plane that went down in the French Alps.

The company, which is a subsidiary of German national carrier Lufthansa, is due to comment on the developments at 14:00 GMT.

French President Francois Hollande said that he believed none of the 148 people on board the Germanwings' airbus that crashed on Tuesday in the French Alps has survived.

Noting that the crash happened in a zone that is particularly hard to access, the French President characterized the accident as a "tragedy in our soil"