parts left are the size of a small car. investigators did find a black box and say it s damaged, but should still be able to provide clues. 150 people were onboard and officials at the crash site say there are no signs of life. most of the victims were from europe including 16 german high school students. two babies were also onboard. the plane left barcelona at 10:00 a.m. local time yesterday morning, climbed to a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet within a half hour. minutes later the plane began an unexplained descent. officials say it fell thousands of feet per minute for roughly eight minutes. the pilots did not send a distress signal which was initially reported in the hour or so after the crash, and flight radar 24 says it lost contact with the plane, which plunged more than 30,000 feet by 10:40. took crews hows to reach the crash site because of its remote
things in and out. i think it was premature if there was any intentional event that was taking place, they may have misspoken until they find that information off the vcr. i agree, it is too early to rule anything in or out. there are none of the obvious signs of terrorism here in this plane. it doesn t appear the plane exploded in midair there was some kind of bomb on it. it would not have had the descent it had. it appeared somebody or some thing was in control of this plane as it mulligan its descent. it was a controlled descent. that s where i think there is a possibility where you can t rule it out. am i wrong? you can t rule anything out at this moment. you can t rule anything out at this moment. i am giving you the sign posts. remember that in the post-9-11 world, pilots are trained not to open that cabin for anything.
at that point it can almost be too l.a. at 38,000 feet have you 15 to 30 seconds to get your oxygen on before you are unconscious. so if the crew had not reacted fast enough to put their masks on then you might have a scenario in which they were not conscious when this plane was on its programmed descent. that has people confused. why hasn t this plane made a programmed descent, it appears, a methodical rapid descent. not extreme. why did it make that programmed descent and then knew into a mountain? in the view of many that would adhere to the theory the crew at some point became incapacitated. gentleman stay with us. let s bring into the conversation france nbc news correspondent keir simmons with the latest on the scene. keir. reporter: mica, good morning. it s interesting hearing you guys talk about the investigation. because while i m listening to you talk about that all of the time it s extraordinary really
plane which plunged more than 30,000 feet by 10:40 a.m. it took crews hours to reach the crash site because of its remote location and authorities are warning it s a long road ahead. at this time officials say they do not suspect terrorism and believe the crash is a tragic accident. steve radner jump in? i just want to amend one thing. it didn t actually fall out of the sky. it appears to have descend, a controlled descent for at least part of its time down. it took eight minutes to reach the ground. if you go back to the air france plane off brazil that did fall out of the sky, it was less than four minutes it hit the ground. so something else was going on here. that s why i wondered why they ruled out terrorism so early. i want to know could auto pilot do that descent? an auto pilot can do anything. if a plane landed on this table, why an auto pilot was suddenly commanded to do that and it is not overrided.
what puzzles veteran crash investigators is why the crew never radioed a mayday. they didn t provide a stress call. they didn t indicate in anyway shape or form a problem with the aircraft. that s very unusual, given the fact that they were 38,000 feet. they would have been in complete communication with air track control. reporter: among the scenarios verdicts will have to consider, was there an emergency to force a rapid descent, if that was the problem the pilot should have levelled the plane out at 10,000 feet where there is plenty of oxygen. instead, it kept descending. so were the pilots and passengers somehow incapacitated perhaps from lack of oxygen? captain john cox once flew the a-320. something obviously occurred within just a few minutes at 38,000 they needed to come down and xa exactly that is i don t know. reporter: the airbus a-320 is among the world s most heavily used planes more than 6,000