Sad as 16 German School Pupils died on board doomed Germanwings flight - but they nearly missed the death..

Conditions suggest 'there are no survivors' French president has said

16 German teenagers had been on a week-long exchange in Barcelona

Year 10 pupils were all members of the same Spanish language class

They all attended Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium school in Haltern-am-See

Students have laid flowers this afternoon at the school near Dusseldorf

Mass held in Llinars del Valles near Barcelona where they were staying.

Pupils almost missed flight when one left her passport at host's house

But Spanish family drove her directly to airport so as not to delay flight

Images emerge of two leading opera singers who died on doomed flight

Opera house confirms that Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak were on board

German hearts weep for the 16 school pupils and two teachers who perished when Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed in the French Alps today - killing all 150 people aboard.

The students who are all understood to be in their teens were pupils at the English-speaking Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium in Haltern-am-See, near Dusseldorf.

The Year 10 pupils were returning home from a week-long exchange programme in Barcelona when the plane went down in a remote region of the French Alps.

Their heartbroken classmates and locals have been lighting candles at their school, while an emotional mass is held in the Spanish town they stayed in.

This afternoon it emerged that the pupils almost missed the doomed flight when one of the students left her passport behind.

But in a tragic twist her host family offered to race the girl and all her travel documents to the airport directly, allowing them to make the flight in time.

The heart-breaking revelation comes as two leading opera singers Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak are identified by an opera house in Dusseldorf as victims of the plane crash.

Meanwhile, members of the Lower Chamber of Spain's parliament observed a minute's silence for the victims of the tragedy.

 In emotional scenes in Haltern-am-See this afternoon, schoolmates of those killed in the disaster were seen comforting one another and embracing and they laid flowers at the school gates.

It comes as pictures emerge of Maria Radner, who was on the Airbus A320 with her husband and baby.

She was performing Richard Wagner's Sigfried at Barcelona's Liceu with Oleg Bryjak who was also on the ill-fated flight.

The company's director Christoph Meyer said: 'We have lost a great performer and a great person in Oleg Bryjak. We are stunned.'

A special service will be held at the Josef-Koenig-School on Wednesday to remember the Spanish speaking pupils who died retruning from a week spent with Spanish friends in Barcelona.

Remembrance: A beautiful vigil was left outside the school while others changed their Facebook cover photos to black, with the message 'Haltern mourns'

The students and teachers were among the 150 to die when the Greenwings Airbus A320 flight crashed into the French Alps

Victim: An opera house in Dusseldorf has said Oleg Bryjak was among the 150 people on board the doomed flight having performed in Richard Wagner's Siegfried in Barcelona

Deceased: Austrian opera singer Maria Radner was on the Greenwings Airbus A320 flight with her husband and baby when it crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board

A candle-lit vigil has been held at the Joseph-Konig-Gymnasium high school who lost 16 students and two teachers in a tragic plane crash in the alps