France committed extensive air and ground resources, including a Mirage, after an alarm sounded on the loss of contact in French airspace of an Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, a low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, on March 24.
The French services dispatched on March 24 a Mirage fighter as soon as the civil flight authorities lost radio contact with the civilian aircraft flight 4U92525, the defense ministry said March 25 on its website. The airliner was flying over France on route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
The Germanwings co-pilot of that morning, for reasons unknown, flew the airliner into a mountainside in the French Alps, slaying all 150 on board.
A Mirage 2000-C based at the Orange airbase in, southern France, was deployed once the alert was sounded on the loss of communication between the airliner and air traffic control.
The French services sent a Fennec helicopter to prevent flights over the wreckage area. , and six Six Air Force and Army helicopters joined in search and rescue, and to transport of freight, intervention teams and government officials. An additional further three helicopters also flew missions to prevent other aircraft to flying over the site.
The Air Force flew a C-135FR to provide a radio contact between aircraft and air traffic control.
Some 70 troops from the 4th regiment at the Gap army base worked that morning laying down signs for the path up to the wreckage. A team at the Lyon Mont-Verdun airbase coordinated flights of the armed forces, civil security and paramilitary gendarmes.
ENDS
PT/27 March 2015
