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It is unlikely that the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed on Tuesday morning in the French Alps carried out an emergency descent before the accident, experts told Sputnik Tuesday.

The plane was reportedly descending at a rate of about 3,000-4,000 ft per minute.

“It is a lot, but it is not a fall. An emergency descent that should be made when there is loss of pressure is carried out at a 1.5 to 2 times higher speed,” Peter Brandl, a German pilot and instructor, told Sputnik.

Brandl added that he could not make a more accurate assessment of the situation, as details remain unclear, but said that the pilots “definitely had problems.”

Peter Haisenko, a former Lufthansa pilot, told Sputnik that he was also inclined to exclude the possibility of an emergency descent in this case. Haisenko said that in the event of so-called decompression, when a plane quickly loses cabin pressure, it is supposed to immediately start descending, which it did not do.

“One should fly a very steep course during such an emergency descent in order to prevent high load. This plane did not do so,” Haisenko said, adding that the plane was descending from the very beginning until it hit the ground.

“It is highly probable that the plane came out of pilots’ control at that moment,” Haisenko said.

Heinrich Grossbongardt, an independent aviation expert, said that it was difficult to draw any conclusions as the cruise phase of flight that the aircraft was in, is the most secure phase.

Grossbongardt added that Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, is one of the best air carriers in the world.

“They are one of the best [companies]. The latest Lufthansa crash happened 20 years ago,” Grossbongardt said.

A Germanwings Airbus A320, carrying 144 passengers and 6 crew members, was heading from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it crashed in southern France.