Alps Plane Crash: Nokesville Mother, Daughter Among Victims

Image: This photo of Emily Selke was posted online Wednesday in a tribute by her sorority, Gamma Sigma Sigma. According to media reports, she graduated in 2013 from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

A woman from Nokesville and her daughter were among the 150 people presumed to have died Tuesday in a plane crash in the French Alps, the U.S. State Department reported.

Yvonne Selke, an employee of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and her daughter Emily were on board the Airbus passenger jet that crashed in the mountains on a flight from Spain to Germany, according to the Washington Post.

A third American was also on the plane but has not been identified, a State Department spokeswoman said Wednesday, according to media reports.

Emily Selke has been identified as a 2010 graduate of Woodbridge Senior High School in Lake Ridge and a 2013 graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Yvonne Selke worked with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s satellite mapping office, according to an anonymous source quoted by the Associated Press and WRC-TV Channel 4.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Selke family said: “Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke. Two wonderful, caring, amazing people who meant so much to so many. At this difficult time we respectfully ask for privacy and your prayers.”

The Zeta chapter of the Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority at Drexel University posted this message Wednesday on its Facebook page:

“Zeta chapter is mourning the loss of our beautiful alumni, Emily Selke. Emily and her mother were abroad the plane from Barcelona to Düsseldorf that crashed yesterday. Emily served as our membership VP while in Zeta and she was an integral part of our growing chapter. She embodied the spirit of Gamma Sigma Sigma. As a person and friend, Emily always put others before herself and cared deeply for all those in her life. Emily will be greatly missed by her fellow sisters of Zeta. Please keep Emily, her mother and their family in your thoughts and prayers during this heartbreaking time.”

The Germanwings A320 airliner was less than an hour into its route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, Germany, when it went into a long descent and crashed, the airline’s CEO said Tuesday, according to media reports. Germanwings is a budget airline operated by Lufthansa, Germany’s largest airline.