A niece of one of the victims of the Germanwings crash is haunted by the 'atrocious ' thought that her uncle spent the last eight minutes of his life knowing he was going to die . Sandrine Driessens , niece of 59-year-old Belgian father and grandfather Christian Driessens , said that the thought was 'very hard ' . 'My uncle certainly knew that he was living his last moments and it 's very hard to hear that the descent of the aircraft lasted eight minute , ' she told La Provence newspaper . Scroll down for video . Loving : Christian Driessens , 59 , pictured second from right , was a keen traveller . He was killed when the Germanwings A320 crashed in the Alps on Tuesday . Happy : Although Christian Driessens ' niece said she was haunted by the idea that he knew he was going to die for eight minutes while the plane was descending , an aviation expert has said that it is more likely that the passengers and crew were calm and did not realise that they were in mortal danger . 'For eight long minutes , he was dying . This is atrocious ! I dare not imagine the horror of parents who tried to protect their babies in this airplane . ' But a veteran A320 pilot has said that the passengers would have been unlikely to know that they were going to die . If anything , he said , the plane would have been filled with 'eerie silence ' . 'It is likely that there was a problem with the pilots , as they put the plane into descent but failed to control it , ' said Tony Newton , who is also an examiner for Britain 's Civil Aviation Authority . 'The aircraft descended at fairly normal rate , in a fairly normal way . It was steep , but I have used steeper descents on a regular basis . It was well within the everyday operation and not in any way terrifying . ' It is likely the oxygen masks were released , he said , and if passengers did not put them on quickly enough they may have lost consciousness . There also may have been 'unpleasant noises and wind effects ' , which may have caused some alarm . But the plane was not 'tumbling out of the sky in a screaming dive ' . 'The crew was probably sitting there waiting for the pilot to complete the descent , ' he said . 'There was probably no indication to passengers of what the end was going to be . 'There may have been some panic when they saw the mountains coming up through the windows , but it would have been brief . 'Either way , in my experience , passengers tend to stay absolutely silent during an emergency . 'It 's not a Hollywood panic , it 's an eerie silence . ' Mr Driessens , born in Kinshasha , had returned to Belgium in 1960 and lived in Couvin and Mons . After meeting his Catalan born wife , Monserat Domingo , the couple settled down in Palleja , 25 km from Barcelona . They had three sons aged 17 to 31 , and three grandchildren . 'He was a wonderful man who loved his family above all , ' said Ms Driessens . 'For more than 30 years he travelled almost weekly in his job . But in this family we 're birds . Drissens are globe-trotters who love to travel . '
grandfather Christian , niece of 59-year-old Belgian father and Sandrine Driessens , said the thought is 'very hard ' 'For eight long minutes , he was dying . This is atrocious , ' she said . But a British aviation expert said it is unlikely passengers knew they were going to die . Instead , he said , the plane would have been filled with 'eerie silence '