Firsthand look at the wreckage. If any of those leaders speak well bring it to you live. Also new this hour, we have new pictures of the black box thats been recovered. The voice flight data recorder is badly damaged. Crews hope to have it working for hours. Key in the investigation, the last eight minutes of that flight. Were covering all of the angels of this story. Our correspondents are at the site and in the countries mourning the loss of all of those aboard. Lets begin with the breaking news. The two americans are among those killed in the crash. Cnns diana magnay is in germany this morning to tell us more. Reporter hi carol. Well thats all i can tell you about these americans, just that two have been confirmed as having been on board. As you said we dont know their names, where they came from. We will be following up on that information, but we do have fresh numbers from the ceo of german wings as to the numbers of people from which country were killed. We know that 72 from germany and 37 he says, from spain. In fact the Spanish Interior Ministry suggests it was a little more than that. Obviously this flight was flying from barcelona to dusseldorf germany, the worst affected. Great britain has confirmed one dead. The netherlands, colombia australia, argentina are beginning to learn more about the people who are killed. Im here in this town and the school behind me lost 16 Exchange Students who had been on a Language Exchange program in spain and were coming back from a week away. The headmaster said tragically they left here 16 happy students. Now we have this terrible tragedy. All morning the students have been coming to lay flowers behind me. There is a book of condolences where they are writing their sorrow. Earlier we spoke to one of the classmates of those that were killed. Lets have a listen to what she said. I knew all of them. They were all in my grade and twoto some i was very close. We already planned things for the future. What we were going to do when they returned from their trip and its very hard to believe that we cannot do that. Carol, these are just some of the stories that are beginning to trickle in. So many across europe and across the world mourn the death of those who died in the alps yesterday, carol. All right. Diana magnay reporting live from germany this morning. Now lets head back to the crash site. Right now some nations are paying their respects to lost country men. The leaders of germany, france, spain are arriving to look at the crash site firsthand. Lets begin with the leaders visit. Erin mclaughlin is at the staging area to tell us more. Reporter hi carol. Thats right. The leaders of germany, france and spain are expected to arrive in this area. We do not believe they will be going to the actual crash site because it is in a remote and difficult to reach location but they are expected to meet with emergency workers in this area who are taking part in a Recovery Mission that is still very much ongoing in the field just behind me all morning weve been seeing helicopters flying in and out, mountaineering experts and we understand from local officials that they have managed to reach the crash site at least some of the choppers and the crash site as i mentioned, is extremely remote reachable really only by air. The terrain there described as incredibly difficult, even icy conditions that theyre having to deal with and local Officials Say that the plane was completely obliterated on impact. The wreckage strewn over a wide area including human remains. Those remains really a priority for officials, a priority for the people here in france to begin that very important identification process of the 150 feel that were on board that plane to begin to remove those bodies. They have yet to remove even one so far so that they can be returned to their loved ones. Theyre also working to try and figure out what exactly happened to this illfated flight. We understand from frances interior minister this morning, he said that the cockpit voice recorder was recovered yesterday, that it had been damaged, although not irreparably. Theyre working to repair it and theyre hoping it happens in the coming hours, carol. Tell us more about the flight data recorder because we had expected to have some information in the coming hours. Is that still true . Yeah i believe what was recovered yesterday was the cockpit voice recorder. Its still unclear where the other black box is. No doubt something that theyre looking for as i speak, but we understand again from frances interior minister that it had been damaged and theyre working to fix it. It seems like theyre optimistic that theyll be getting some information at least today in that regard carol. Erin mclaughlin, reporting live from the crash site. Thank you so much. I want to turn to the investigation. Peter goelz and im joined by Flight Instructor scott miller. Welcome to you both. Thanks for being with me. I appreciate it. Thank you for having us. My pleasure. Lots of information coming in to us right now. There are at least two different time lines, but this is what french officials are telling us this morning. 10 30 in the morning local time all seems well with this flight. At 10 31 the plane starts to descend without authorization. Controllers reach out but get no answer from the cockpit. At 10 35 the plane is at 6500 feet and then it simply disappears from the radar. 10 53 the plane apparently crashes. Now, peter, the crucial time is between 10 30 and 10 31. Why . Well you know you need to know what the last moments were like. What were the flight crew doing . Hopefully the voice recorder which is really profoundly damaged, they will be able to extract the voices from the chips in the recorder. It may take some time but theyll get that data. We need to know what the pilots were doing, what they were saying if they were communicating. If we dont have that last moments, its going to deepen the mystery and we wont know what they were focused on. And you mentioned that the cockpit voice recorder is damaged, peter. Does that mean that we might not know what happened during that crucial minute . No, i think first of all, it just shows the profound force that that plane hit the mountain with. I mean it was going at an extraordinary amount of speed and the damage was profound but they will be able to extract the voices. If theres anything on the recorder theyll be able to get it. Ive seen more damaged recorders where theyve gotten voices off the digital devices. So it may take some time but they will get it. The real key is the data recorder. Thats where the Key Information will be. Scott, youre a pilot. Air Traffic Control reached out to this pilot, to this cockpit at 10 31. No answer. Describe a scenario where you or your co pilot would not answer or send a distress call. Well ive been thinking a lot about that and unfortunately, a direct answer to that question i would have a hard time coming up with one. When we are operating the aircraft even if everything is perfectly normal or we are encountering adverse conditions we ensure it is being flown, we ensure its on the proper flight path and we ensure we are communicating properly. The lack of communication especially during the 8 minute descent is very troubling and very curious at this point. Even if you were trying to right the plane and the plane was in the process of crashing lets say, you could find some time or the copilot could find some time to at least send out a distress call. Yes, thats true. And this the eightminute descent, it does appear obviously that that was an unusual event and that something very compelling caused the crew to make the decision to start down but during that eightminute time frame there should have been adequate time more than enough time to even get a quick message out about why they were descending. If they had experienced a pressurization problem, this is pure speculation, but if they had a pressurization problem we have an actual checklist that we follow to get the aircraft safely descended. Printed is an atc communication item. Interesting. So peter, id like you to take a look at the wreckage and youre going to see the wreckage in a second here. Youre going to see circled areas. The pieces of wreckage in these circled areas are likely pieces of the tail section because theres red on the tail section. There are bigger pieces of the fuselage about the size of a car. As an investigator what can you discern from the debris field . Weve seen debris fields like this in the past. You can go back to value yet, the plane that crashed in the everglades virtually dissin at the great disintegrated as well. It was a very high speed impact. This plane was going in excess of 400 knots probably when it hit the side of the mountain. Youre not going to get much beyond that because the wreckage is so tiny. As captain miller indicated, that eight minute disscent where there was no communication is very troubling and have i concerning. So scott, i also thought it kind of strange that germanwings has not released the pilots wing or any information about the copilot. Why would that be . Well that again, pure speculation, it could be, you know something as simple as family notification ahead of time. Ensuring that, you know in fact the proper names are being released. There may have been a lastminute crew change that may have inserted a little bit of uncertainty. I wouldnt make a lot of that. I think theyre being very careful with the release of data to ensure proper information is released. Peter, why not release any information, at least, about the copilot . Well i think captain millers right. We dont know. It could be that theyre having difficulty reaching out to their next of kin. It may have been a request from german or french authorities. They are going to do extensive background checks on both of these crew members to see whether theres any indication of something that would raise a red flag to investigators. I think lufthansa and the french have been very methodical. They have been very precise. They havent had any missteps in family assistance or in the investigation. I just think theyre doing it in a stepbystep basis. I think well get the names of the crew members in the near future. Peter goelz thank you for your insight. Two americans are involved in the crash. Will adding that to the investigation complicate the field . Well talk about that next. And sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. This is called non24. Learn more by calling 8448242424. Or visit your24info. Com. In new york state, were reinventing how we do business so businesses can reinvent the world. From pharmaceuticals to 3d prototyping, biotech to clean energy. Whether your business is moving, expanding or just getting started. 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Whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, thats what id like to do. Weve just got these pictures in to cnn. You see this helicopter. It just landed near the crash site at the base of the crash site at the base of the french alps. You can see three World Leaders getting off that chopper. Francois hollande. Angela merkel. Its a wonderful gesture theyre there. You have the three there because obviously the plane departed from spain more than 50 passengers on board. 50 of the dead were from spain so thats why lacroix is there. It was going to dusseldorf in germany. Many of the germans are dead. Thats why Angela Merkel is there. It was flying over the french alps. There were french citizens there so Francois Hollande is there. Its called the state of occurrence and it is the french that have the business the bea of france that do the investigation. So theyll be the primary investigating arm of this crash, right . Absolutely. Absolutely. Because we now know that two americans died and you would think the ntsb would get involved in the investigation. Every country under aikoa 13 to give you its full title, every country that has passengers is allowed to take part. They will see documents. It might be that the ntsb has an accredited representative. There will be avionics on board that came from american companies. The ntsb and the bea are usually involved in any Major Incident simply because there is an interest involved and they have the expertise. Do we have rene marsh available . Have you heard anything from the ntsb as of yet this morning . Reporter yes, carol. I spoke with the ntsb. Richard hit it on the head there. Officially the bea, the french equivalent of the ntsb will be leading this investigation for all the reasons he late out but, still, now that we know two americans were on board the ntsb says they are paying close attention. They will have access to any information they are curious about or want to know about because they do have this increased interest. As far as the avionics there may be we dont know all the details of what may have been manufactured by u. S. Companies at this point but that too, raises the interest level for the ntsb. Officially they will not be leading the investigation and as of right now as i speak to you they tell me they are not physically sending someone there, they are monitoring from here. That said their posture is here that the moment that the bea says they need any sort of assistance theyre there and ready to go. I was going to ask you, richard, too many just to pause there. I see pictures thats lacroix, the gentleman with the beard who has joined the group in the sen seynelesalpes. Here are the pictures of all of them. Its nice to see the spectacle. Dont forget these three leaders meet frequently at European Councils so they know each other very well. They are constantly negotiating whether its over greek debt european budgets e. U. Matters, its not unusual for them to be together. Its not often and it speaks to the magnitude and the gravity of whats happened that the three have decided to come together so quickly. This is unusual. Very unusual. Lets talk about the investigation itself. So i heard what rene said. Everybodys ready to help but the french are in charge of the investigation. But there will be pressure from outside sources on french investigators to hurry along wont there be . Might there be . There always is pressure. The french the bea, the bureau they are enormously experienced. Just to pause as they are having a moment of silence. Pressure but the bureau is extremely experienced. They did air france 447. They did concord. Theyve done many many many incidents and theyre very good at releasing information. Theyre extremely good. There will be News Conferences. There will be press conferences. They produced a phenomenal report on 447. Releasing information because for some information im obsessed about the copilot. Weve heard nothing about the copilot. Why is that . Because during the press conference they had, they released information about the pilot but nothing about the copilot. Its going to take time. Its less than 24 hours. They know who was flying the plane. You want to put it into digestible fashion. The first job and duty is not to tell us about the copilot. The first job and duty is to deal with the families the relatives, the crash site the investigation. Now i would imagine we will get a report from the bea very soon that will collate that information. We will not find the name. We will not find the name. A lot of people who want to know about it. French officials came out and said they havent ruled out terrorism but they think its unlikely. Why did they put it in that exact way . Because you would be the first person asking have you ruled out terrorism. Of course. And they havent. Everything remains on the table. This is so different, this incident. This is out of all the realms. Rene marsh has been saying from anything that weve seen before this is absolutely unusual. More unusual than malaysia . That was unusual. I would think that would take the cake. Rene want to bring you into this discussion. I guess its not so unusual for authorities not to release the names of the pilot, the copilot or any real information about them until later . Reporter right. Even when you look here in the United States the ntsb they never release the names of individuals involved in accidents. The names are usually that information usually comes, for example, from the airlines but not the ntsb. Thats just the way it usually works. So it doesnt surprise me that at least at this stage the investigators are not taking it upon themselves to release individuals names. Again, that usually comes from the airline. Just keep in mind as we watch the events unfold over the next few days carol, this is a very remote place. Its difficult to get the recovery of the remains and the aircraft and they are wholly engaged in that task. At the same time lufthansa has to continue running the airline and lufthansa has to get all of the documents for that investigation. So were such early days in this but i think youre going to see a dramatic increase in information, youre going to see a lot more happening now. Certainly now that weve seen the three leaders. Well and they have one of the black boxes although its very damaged. Peter goelz says theyll be able to get information out of there so thats good. Theyll release that probably fairly quickly . Theyll release it on their time scale, not on ours. Thats really the way it goes yes. But heres the interesting point, the ntsb changed the rules by themselves effectively. If you go back to asiana in san francisco. Deborah herzman gave more information than weve ever seen and its the rest of the world following their normal procedures. Its the u. S. That went on this its own frolik of giving much more information, many more press conferences, but luckily the bea does have a history if we look back at 447 of being very transparent, very open in what they release. Thats good. How does this differ at this point, rene than an ntsb investigation . Because the ntsb does hold very lengthy press conferences and t