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Germanwings plane crash leaves an Alpine village shrouded in grief Germanwings plane crash leaves an Alpine village shrouded in grief
(about 7 hours later)
In Seyne-les-Alpes, locals looked up towards the breathtakingly beautiful snow-covered mountain peaks beyond which the plane went down and said the picturesque hillside village would never feel the same.In Seyne-les-Alpes, locals looked up towards the breathtakingly beautiful snow-covered mountain peaks beyond which the plane went down and said the picturesque hillside village would never feel the same.
“We’re in shock, nothing of this scale has ever happened here before,” said Maurice Borel, a retired voluntary fireman who in autumn used to go hunting near the craggy mountain slopes where the plane went down. “We’re in shock, nothing of this scale has ever happened here before,” said Maurice Borel, a retired volunteer fireman who in autumn used to go hunting near the craggy mountain slopes where the plane crashed.
The village youth centre, which would normally be packed with riotous children’s sports clubs on a Wednesday afternoon, had been made into a silent makeshift chapel and remembrance centre for the families of the victims. Locals defined their picturesque mountain village of 1,500 people as a “fairytale place”. But many felt unbearable sadness at the contrast of the beauty of the natural surroundings of this little Alpine mountain village, with its historic stone citadel, with the harsh reality of the crash and the ongoing search for the victims’ scattered remains on the rugged mountain terrain beyond.
It lay in a valley below stunning views of the mountains, but villagers said they felt unbearable sadness at the contrast of the beauty of the natural surroundings of this little Alpine mountain village whose clock chimed out the hours beneath a historic stone citadelle and the harsh reality of the crash and the search for victims’ remains on the rugged mountain terrain beyond. The mood was one of stillness and grief. On a field outside the village, from where gendarme helicopters hovered back and forth on the recovery mission all day, François Hollande and Angela Merkel touched down by helicopter in the early afternoon. They had just flown over the debris field that is all that remains of Germanwings flight 4U9525.
The only sounds were the excited shouts of local children playing tag in a field, a reminder of the school pupils who had died on board. Inside the centre, support staff, including nurses and psychologists, were preparing for the families to arrive. Merkel, in particular, looked stunned, shocked and ashen-faced. With the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, Hollande and Merkel went to the tiny mountain hamlet of Le Vernet, the nearest inhabited site to the crash, where they held a minute’s silence, and spoke at length to rescue workers.
A sports hall had been rearranged with tables of flowers and national flags of the victims’ countries. Many of the victims’ relatives had been flown to Marseille overnight and were being bussed for several hours up into the Alps. Psychologists were preparing to deal with the particularly complicated task of grief-counselling for families who would not immediately have access to their relatives’ remains. The message of their grim-faced address to the cameras from a makeshift hangar on a field in the shadow of the mountains was that they would do all they could to ease the pain of the families.
Merkel urged the victims’ relatives to come to the village. Her face marked with emotion, she said: “I want to say that all the families, all the relatives, they are welcome here. All has been prepared to welcome them here, to the place of this terrible catastrophe.”
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The recovery of bodies could take days or longer given that debris is spread in tiny pieces across a vast area of mountainside. Hollande vowed that all resources would be poured into massive efforts to recover the remains of the passengers and to ensure that an inquiry sheds full light on what happened. He said: “Everything will be done to find, identify and return the bodies to victims’ families.”
Meanwhile, families would be encouraged to write in the condolences book and record their last memories of their loved ones, the last time they saw them and how they remembered them. A holiday centre and several hotels in the area have been reserved for families to stay. Local language teachers had offered to act as translators. One victim’s family had already arrived in Seyne-les-Alpes, Hollande said, and more would follow. Special measures would be taken to care for and provide beds for any families who wanted to travel to the hamlets to be as near as possible to where their loved ones died. But with no access to the crash site, no explanation for the mysterious crash and as yet no bodies or coffins, psychological support was paramount.
In the picturesque mountain village of 1,500 people, Joel Nonancourt, a former petrol worker who had retired here from Marseille, lived on the winding road of wooden-shuttered chalets leading down to the makeshift chapel. Families who had gathered in shock at airports in Barcelona and Düsseldorf must now decide whether to travel to the Alps while they continue the long wait to bury their relatives. At least one team of Spanish psychologists had reportedly landed in a nearby Alpine town in preparation to greet any relatives. The 150 victims were from at least 16 countries, including 72 from Germany, 51 from Spain and at least three from Britain.
The Seyne-les-Alpes youth centre, which would normally be packed with riotous children’s sports clubs on a Wednesday afternoon, had been made into a silent makeshift chapel and remembrance centre for the victims’ relatives. The mood outside it was one of stillness and grief. The only sounds were the excited shouts of local children playing tag in a field, a sad reminder of the school pupils who had died on board.
Inside the centre, support staff, including nurses and psychologists, had been preparing for the arrival of families. A sports hall had been rearranged with tables of flowers and national flags of the victims’ countries. “I hope I’m able to rise to the challenge of supporting families at a really difficult time,” one local nurse told French radio.
Psychologists told journalists they were preparing for the particularly complex task of grief counselling for families who would not immediately have access to their relatives’ remains.
The recovery of bodies could take days or longer. The further task of identifying remains would be complex and could take days, if not weeks, because of the violence of the impact.
Meanwhile, families would be encouraged to write in the condolences book and record their last memories of their loved ones, the last time they saw them and how they remembered them. A holiday centre and several hotels in the area have been reserved for families. Local language teachers had offered to act as translators.
Joel Nonancourt, a former petrol worker who had retired here from Marseille, lived on the winding road of wooden-shuttered chalets leading down to the makeshift chapel.
He said: “Last night I could barely sleep thinking about the rescue process. I was pleased to hear that gendarme teams had stayed overnight down in the valley where the debris is because there are packs of wolves in these mountains. It’s really inhospitable terrain.”He said: “Last night I could barely sleep thinking about the rescue process. I was pleased to hear that gendarme teams had stayed overnight down in the valley where the debris is because there are packs of wolves in these mountains. It’s really inhospitable terrain.”
He added: “We are all feeling such emotion in the village. All our thoughts are for the dead and their families. What has really affected me is the thought of the two babies and the children who were coming back from a school trip. We’re devastated. He added: “We are all feeling such emotion in the village. All our thoughts are for the dead and their families. What has really affected me is the thought of the two babies and the children who were coming back from a school trip. We’re devastated. It’s normally such a quiet village, it swells to 10 times its size during the ski season and the summer walking and fishing season, with a pretty little Alpine market which attracts tourists. But outside those times, it’s so calm. People live here for the nature, for these surroundings.”
“It’s normally such a quiet village, it swells to 10 times its size during the ski season and the summer walking and fishing season, with a pretty little Alpine market which attracts tourists. But outside those times, it’s so calm. People live here for the nature, for these surroundings.”
Ghislaine Payan, who used to run a retirement home in the area, had telephoned the town hall in Seyne-les-Alpes to offer rooms in her home in the next village in case there were not enough hotel rooms for the victims’ families in the area.Ghislaine Payan, who used to run a retirement home in the area, had telephoned the town hall in Seyne-les-Alpes to offer rooms in her home in the next village in case there were not enough hotel rooms for the victims’ families in the area.
“I called straight away, I said I could provide accommodation for two couples if they needed. It’s so important to offer our help and for these families not to feel isolated, even if we can’t speak their languages, we can offer some human warmth,” she said. The town hall had taken her details but hadn’t yet called her back. “But I’m mobilised if I’m needed,” Payan said.“I called straight away, I said I could provide accommodation for two couples if they needed. It’s so important to offer our help and for these families not to feel isolated, even if we can’t speak their languages, we can offer some human warmth,” she said. The town hall had taken her details but hadn’t yet called her back. “But I’m mobilised if I’m needed,” Payan said.
“We just feel so powerless,” said René Dufour, a retired textile worker, as he looked out towards the snowy peaks beyond which the plane crashed. “All we can do is send all our thoughts to the families.”“We just feel so powerless,” said René Dufour, a retired textile worker, as he looked out towards the snowy peaks beyond which the plane crashed. “All we can do is send all our thoughts to the families.”
On fields outside the village, helicopters were lined up for the search and recovery mission as vans of police and gendarmes filled the area.
André Esclapez, a retired volunteer fireman, said: “The terrain is very, very difficult up there. My thoughts go out to the emergency services who are working on retrieving remains. I was at home with my son when the news first flashed on the television. He’s a fireman and was on a day off. He immediately leaped up and said: ‘I’ve got to go’, and joined the rescue mission. Everyone here will do all they can to help.”