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Two US citizens killed in Germanwings crash identified, State Dept. says

One of the three US passengers on the doomed flight worked as a contractor for one of the country's largest management consulting firms.

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Fabrice Balsamo, Gendarmerie Nationale/AP
This photo provided by the Gendarmerie Nationale shows debris of the crashed Germanwings passenger jet scattered on the mountain side near Seyne-les-Alpes, French Alps, Wednesday, March 25, 2015.
  • By Reuters

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc contractor Yvonne Selke and two other US citizens were among 150 people killed when a Germanwings Airbus crashed into a remote Alpine region in France, the US State Department said on Wednesday.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that Selke and her daughter, Emily, were on the flight and said a third US citizen was on board. Psaki said that passenger's name was being withheld "out of respect for the family."

A US official separately said Yvonne Selke was a contractor with the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency, which analyzes imagery from spy planes and satellites.

A spokesman for Booz Allen Hamilton declined to comment. The Washington Post reported Selke and her daughter were from Virginia.

European officials are investigating the crash that also claimed the lives of 72 Germans and 51 Spaniards, among others. One Belgian was aboard, Australia said two of its nationals were on the flight, and Britain said it was likely some of its citizens were on the plane.

Sixteen teenagers and two teachers from a high school in Germany were on the plane, after participating in an exchange student program in Spain.

All of the passengers and crew are presumed dead.

An investigation was underway to determine why the A320 crashed. It was operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline and was en route to Duesseldorf from Barcelona when it went down.

Images of the crash site showed that the plane had been pulverized.

Investigators have extracted cockpit voice recordings from one of two "black boxes" on the flight. The casing of a second black box has been found without the data.

US investigators have not been asked to assist in the investigation, representatives for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said.

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