A third American was listed Wednesday among the 150 people killed in the crash of a German airliner in the French Alps, where investigators are still searching through five acres of debris for a critical second black box. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed the additional American fatality but did not identify the victim.
Two Americans were listed earlier by French officials as among those killed aboard the Germanwings airliner that went down Tuesday en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. The two were identified as Yvonne Selke, an employee with Booz Allen Hamilton for nearly 23 years, and her daughter, Emily Selke, from Nokesville, Va. “Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke,” the family said in a statement. “Two wonderful, caring, amazing people who meant so much to so many. At this difficult time we respectfully ask for privacy and your prayers.”
Emily, a music industry major, graduated with honors in 2013 from Drexel University, which said in a statement it is “deeply saddened to hear about the tragic loss.” The victims also included 72 Germans and 35 Spaniards. There were two victims each from Australia, Argentina, Iran and Venezuela. One each came from Britain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Morocco and Israel.
Thomas Winkelmann, CEO of Germanwings, said the list of victims is not complete because the airline is trying to contact relatives of 27 victims. He also said that the nationality of some victims is unclear, partly because of dual citizenship. Officials investigating the crash of the Airbus A320 said they have been able to extract critical audio data from one badly damaged black box but have not yet found the second box, which contains electronic data, among the five acres of debris at the site high in the Alps.