SIXTEEN German pupils from the same class die on doomed Germanwings flight - but they nearly missed plane when one student forgot their passport

The students - all of whom are understood to be in their teens - were pupils at the English-speaking Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium in Haltern-am-See, not far from the city of Dusseldorf. The Year 10 pupils were returning home from a week-long exchange programme in Barcelona at the time of the disaster, which took place in a remote region of the French Alps en route from Spain to Germany.