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Controversy surrounds alleged Germanwings crash video

French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild said Tuesday they obtained cell phone video found at crash site by one of investigators.

01.04.2015 - Update : 01.04.2015
Controversy surrounds alleged Germanwings crash video

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS

French prosecutor Brice Robin, who is in charge of the Germanwings flight crash investigation, dismissed Wednesday claims that investigators have cell phone video footage of the doomed flight's final moments. 

Robin's comments come a day after French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild claimed to have obtained a video sequence of the final moments from inside the plane.

"At this stage of the investigation, there is no such video," Robin said in a statement.

He urged anyone who has videos of the crash that left 150 people dead last week in the French Alps to "hand them over immediately to investigators."

Robin also said that cell phones collected at the crash site have not yet been sent for analysis.

Paris Match and Bild had reported on Tuesday that they watched a cell phone video found on a memory card at the crash site by one of the investigators.

"The authenticity of the video is unquestionable, although the scenery on board is chaotic, totally blurred and no individuals can be identified," reported the two media outlets. "The video was recorded in the rear of the plane. It is unclear whether this was done while standing or sitting. It is also not known whether a passenger or crew member had filmed it."

The report also said "the passengers on board knew what desperate situation they were in."

"One can hear the cry 'My God' in several languages," the report said.

Paris Match reported that metallic banging can also be heard more than three times, "perhaps of the pilot trying to open the cockpit door with a heavy object," as he was locked out by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.

"Toward the end, after a heavy shake, stronger than the others, the screaming intensifies. Then nothing," reported Paris Match.

The air disaster is one of the most tragic incidents in recent German aviation history and the first deadly crash of a Germanwings plane since the low-budget airline was founded by Lufthansa in 2002.

The crash was also the first on French soil since July 25, 2000, when an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel in Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, shortly after taking off from Roissy-CDG Airport, killing 13 German passengers and crew members, along with four others on the ground.

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