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Other guest said it is just as easy to make a radio control as to set the transponder. so that doesn't -- i don't think that means anything. pilots trained if you have a decompression problem to put on your oxygen mask the first thing you do then you start a rapid descent, you're required to descend to an altitude where no one needs oxygen in four minutes. this took eight minutes. >> to clyde's point, this terrain and the circumstances that the pilot would have been facing? >> he would have turned from the terrain and made a rapid descent, that's not what happened. clive, thank you very much a...

Crash in the french alps where a debris field is scattered across mountainous terrain. 150 passengers were on board the germanwings airbus 320. a budget airline separated by lufthansa. officials do not expect any survivors. among the passengers booked spanish and turkish and german citizens including 16 students and two teachers from a school outside dusseldorf. investigators admit there are very few clues as to what went wrong. what we do know less than an hour into the flight the plane made an orderly descent at 38,000 feet down to 8,000 feet when all contact was lost. right now the french p...

Assembly lines, they're very well built have a very good safety record. the plane left barcelona at 10:01 a.m. up to 38,000 feet. it was only at 38,000 feet cruising altitude for about a minute, that's it then began this descent, starting at 10:45 a.m. in what's described as an orderly descent, 3 to 4,000 feet a minute as anthony suggested until it crashed into a mountain at 6,000 feet. i think you have a couple of suggestions here couple of questions. if this was an orderly descent, yet at some point along the way, crew transponded an emergency distress code, not a verbal may day, but code of...

But i am not is so sure. i think the first thing pilot has to do if there's loss of pressure, this happened so fast whatever happened happened so fast when the plane was at cruise height that the crew seemed not to have had opportunity to send a verbal message. there was automatic distress signal, not a verbal message. that's telling. either the crew were incapacitated or so preoccupied with what was going on didn't have time to send a message. you must remember this is one of the most densely monitored pieces of air space in the world, watched over by radar from spain, france and switzerland....

Failure. and structural failure related i think to some kind of loss of cabin pressure leaking air, and this condition called hi pox ee a, renders crew and passengers unconscious, as previous guest said it did continue the same direction, and first thing a pilot has to do under these circumstances is lose altitude get below 10,000 feet where he can equalize pressure inside and outside the cabin. if over a mountain range, can't descend easily without hitting a mountain. >> help me understand and the audience as well when you say that this was a fast rate. when we hear 8 minutes, that seems like...