French Alps plane crash: Families' airport vigil ends in wails of grief

Grieving relatives arrive at Barcelona Airport. Photo / AP

The shocked families of the dead stood vigil in Barcelona airport all day, in tears, leaving only after night fell and police ushered them out.

Several dozen relatives and friends of the passengers on board the Germanwings jet began gathering at El Prat Airport in the late morning. Their anxiety turned to horror when it became clear there were unlikely to be any survivors.

Initially, a small group of relations stood in the arrivals hall amid the flow of passengers stepping off other planes. But the airport staff soon took them to a private room to await news.

A schoolgirl lights a candle in Haltern, Germany. Sixteen children and two teachers were from Haltern. Photo / AP

One elderly woman let out a wail of grief as a young woman escorted her, while a man in his 60s tried to hide his tears behind sunglasses. Another man walked with his arm around a stricken teenage boy.

Three men said their friend and colleague was on the plane to Dusseldorf for a meeting.

"He was about to retire," one said.

Police were reported to be taking DNA samples from relations to help to identify bodies.

Two German consular officials joined the grieving families. Counsellors were on hand.

Spanish schoolfriends of the 16 German teenagers who were flying back from an exchange programme at the Giola school in Llinars del Valles, north of Barcelona, spread the news over social media.

Josep Aixandri, whose grandson had taken part in the programme, said pupils were struggling to cope. "They all went to the station this morning to see the German children off ..."

Germanwings

• The budget airline Germanwings was founded 13 years ago and has 5 per cent of the low-cost market

• It was wholly bought by Lufthansa in 2009 and flies to 130 destinations across Europe

• The airline has 78 planes, mainly Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s.

• Last year, it was named the third best low-cost airline in Europe after Norwegian and easyJet in the World Airline Awards.

• It has had no major accidents but one jet was affected by contaminated cabin air in 2010, causing its pilots to come close to losing consciousness. They managed to land the plane at Cologne with no injuries.