SEYNES-LES-ALPES, France (AP) – A French prosecutor says at least 40 cellphones have been found at the site of last week’s crash in the French alps — and that they are in “very, very damaged” condition.
No video or audio from the cellphones of those aboard the plane has been released publicly. But a French reporter who says he saw video from one cellphone described the excruciating sound of “screaming and screaming” as the plane flew full-speed into the mountain.
Questions persist about Frederic Helbert’s reports in the French magazine Paris-Match and in the German tabloid Bild this week about the video that he says he saw, but he vigorously defended his reports in an interview today with The Associated Press.
Helbert said he viewed the video thanks to an intermediary close to the crash investigation, but does not have a copy of it himself. He says it was shot from the back of the plane, so “you cannot see their faces, but you can hear them screaming and screaming.” He says nobody on the video “is moving or getting up.” Helbert says, “People understand something terrible is going to happen.”