Israeli Citizen Was Aboard Germanwings Flight That Crashed in French Alps
Image by Getty Images
An Israeli citizen was aboard the Germanwings flight 4U 9525 that crashed in the French Alps, Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed.
Eyal Baum, 40, a businessman living in Germany who was flying home from Barcelona, was among the 144 passengers killed on Tuesday morning in the crash of the Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa’s budget airline, according to the Jerusalem Post. Six crew members also died.
Other Israeli media said Baum lives in Barcelona and was traveling to Dusseldorf, Germany, for business.
The Foreign Ministry said his family, of Hod Hasharon in central Israel, had been notified. The family reportedly had contacted the ministry earlier in the day when reports of the crash were made public, knowing that Baum had a ticket for the flight.
A black box from the plane has been found. Recovering the remains reportedly will take several days because of the remote area’s difficult landscape. It is not believed that the crash was terror related.
Sixteen German high school students and two of their teachers returning from a weeklong trip to Spain, as well as two German opera singers, were among the passengers killed in the crash.
The plane lost altitude for eight minutes before crashing; it did not issue a distress call.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
