Intro side note: I noticed a few websites are claiming that the windshield on the Germanwings Airbus cracked causing the pilots to lose consciousness. Also pilots for the same company are presently refusing to fly. (r.a. note)

EXPRESS UK  By Dion Dassanayake       Posted Wed., Mar.25, 2015

The 16 German youngsters and their two teachers nearly were not on the plane, which “disintegrated” in the sky, after one student forgot her passport. The unnamed student is believed to have realised she misplaced her travel documents before catching a train to travel to Barcelona’s El Prat airport.

However, it is claimed the family she had been staying with on an exchange trip drove her to catch the Germanwings plane separately from her classmates. As a result, she did not hold up the pupils from Germany’s Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium and the group were on time to boarded the doomed flight.

The sixteen pupils and two teachers were among 150 passengers who died onboard the Airbus A320 which smashed into the French Alps earlier today.

The schoolchildren had just had the “most wonderful time of their lives” on an exchange trip to the village of Llinars del Valles, near Barcelona, Spain.

The Spanish village’s mayor Marti Pujol this afternoon confirmed the German school pupils had managed to catch Germanwings Flight 4U9525 on time.

Children at the Giola Secondary School, where the exchange students had been staying, spoke of their sorrow after hearing the news. Anna Garcia said: “One of the German girls left a bag with all her travel documents inside at her host family’s home.

“So they didn’t hold the rest of the group up, the family took her to the airport and she was able to board the plane.”

The exchange trip came after 12 Spanish students had spent a week at Germany’s Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium in December.

Anna added: “Our German teacher is very affected by the news.

“He says he has to put on a brave face for the pupils’ sake but he is going through a very bad time.”

A private memorial for the 16 German youngsters is expected to take place tomorrow morning at the school in Spain. Two of their teachers are also feared to be among the dead. The disaster happened during a flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

Sylvia Loehrmann, the education minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said: “It was a Spanish language exchange programme and they were flying home after having what was probably the most wonderful time of their lives.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/566139/Germanwings-Flight-4U9525school-children-pupils-teachers-almost-missed-French-Alps-crash   Pic above depicts German students lighting candles in memory of the students who lost their lives in the Airbus crash.