At least two Americans were aboard the German jetliner that crashed Tuesday in the French Alps, the airline’s chief executive said Wednesday.
The two Americans were among the 150 people on board the flight, none of whom are thought to have survived. Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said 72 Germans and 35 Spanish citizens have also been identified, while the airline is still trying to contact 27 victims’ relatives, according to The Associated Press.
Two citizens each from Iran, Australia, Argentina and Venezuela were aboard the flight, as well as passengers from Britain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Belgium, Denmark, Israel and Japan, The Associated Press reported.
Airline authorities and executives have so far not offered an explanation for the cause of the crash, though French officials are working to pull data off a recovered cockpit voice recorder.
“At this stage, we consider this to be an accident,” Heike Birlenbach, the vice president of Lufthansa, of which Germanwings is a subsidiary, said at a news conference Tuesday evening, according to The New York Times.
There were no signs the downing of the Airbus A320 was the result of terrorism, White House national security council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Tuesday.
President Obama said Tuesday he called German Chancellor Angela Merkel to express condolences and hoped to speak with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
“It’s particularly heartbreaking because it apparently includes the loss of so many children,” Obama said of the crash.