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Germanwings Says Some Crew Are Refusing to Fly After Alps Crash

Pilots and cabin crew members have told the airline Germanwings they do not want to fly following the carrier’s unexplained crash in the French Alps.
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Some Germanwings pilots and cabin crew have refused to fly following the carrier's unexplained crash in the French Alps, the airline confirmed Wednesday.

Germanwings said there were "occasional flight disruptions" within its network due to "crew members who decided not to operate aircraft" following the crash of Flight 4U9525 with 150 people aboard en route to Dusseldorf, Germany.

"We understand their decision," Thomas Winkelmann, a spokesman for Germanwings, said in an earlier statement.

Dusseldorf Airport said 24 Germanwings flights had been cancelled on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.

"Following the tragic accident yesterday, individual crews of Germanwings refused to fly," it said in a statement. "Six people spent the night on cots which were provided by the airport." London's Heathrow Airport also confirmed several flight disruptions.

Investigators are working to determine what caused Flight 4u9525 to rapidly descend for eight minutes while en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf before slamming into the side of a mountain.

In-Depth

- Andy Eckardt and Alexander Smith