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A Germanwings (Lufthansa subsidiary) Airbus A-320-200 airliner has crashed in the French Alps. It is reported to have carried 154 people on board (including 6 crew members). Unfortunately, no survivors have been found so far. There were reports about the crew sending out distress calls shortly before the crash. The flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf was last registered on the radar at 6800 feet.
http://www.laprovence.com/article/actualites/3326948/un-airbus-a320-secrase-dans-les-alpes-de-haute-provence.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/24/us-france-crash-airbus-lufthansa-idUSKBN0MK0ZP20150324
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/german-a320-airbus-plane-crashes-french-alps
[Edit 16:35 UTC. janrinok. Source: BBC] The 'black box' has been recovered. The aircraft descent took place over a period of approximately 8 minutes, and communication between the crew and the French air traffic controllers was 'broken' when the aircraft was at an altitude of around 6000 feet. The TV pictures being broadcast show a large number of helicopters being deployed to a snow free landing-zone but the surrounding mountains have significant snow cover and there is a low cloudbase. French authorities have said that the recovery of the bodies will take 'several days'.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Steve Hamlin on Tuesday March 24 2015, @05:12PM
"which is why you have the verbal 'I have control' - 'You have control' handshake so that this situation is avoided. There should never be any doubt as to which pilot has control."
There are also technical solutions to help alleviate this problem, in addition to proper CRM, such as providing feedback between the dual controls.
Air France 447, the Airbus A330 that crashed in 2009 in the mid-Atlantic between South America and Europe: "The flight controls are not linked between the two pilot seats, and...the left seat pilot who believed he had taken over control of the plane, was not aware that [the right seat pilot] had continued to hold the stick back, which overrode [the left seat pilot's] own control." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Human_factors_and_computer_interaction] [wikipedia.org]