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 A U.S. contractor and her college graduate daughter were identified Wednesday as two Americans killed aboard the Germanwings plane that plunged into a French Alps mountainside, while the State Department confirmed that a third American also died. 
 
 Yvonne Selke and daughter, Emily, of Nokesville, Virginia, were the Americans on doomed Flight 4U9525, NBC News has confirmed. The plane crashed Tuesday en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany, killing all 150 passengers and crew, officials said. Investigators found one black box and the frame of another black box from the Airbus A320, which was pulverized upon impact in a remote area of the Alps. 
 
 State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not identify the third American. 
 
 The Selke family released a statement about the tragic loss of the mother and daughter. 
 
 "Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke," the family said. "Two wonderful, caring, amazing people who meant so much to so many. At this difficult time we respectfully ask for privacy and your prayers." 
 
 Yvonne Selke worked as a contractor for almost 23 years for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. in Washington, D.C., the company said. 
 
 She "was a wonderful co-worker and a dedicated employee who spent her career with the firm supporting the mission of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency," the Pentagon's satellite mapping office, the company said. 
 
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 On Facebook, Drexel University's Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority posted a tribute to Emily Selke, a 2013 graduate and a former vice president of the service sorority's Zeta chapter. 
 
 "She embodied the spirit of Gamma Sigma Sigma," the post said. "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." 
 
 Emily Selke was a music industry major at Drexel's Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. She had been working as a community manager at Carr Workplaces, which finds office space to companies, since last year. 
 
 "We cherished Emily's work ethic, enthusiasm, humor, and overall presence," the company said in a statement. "She was dedicated, helpful, and always willing to go the extra mile, especially when it came to her passion for hospitality and event planning. Her genuine, bright smile and quick wit will be missed." 
 
 Kathy Burr, director of education at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Manassas, Virginia, where the Selke family have been members since 1993, recalled that Yvonne Selke volunteered at the church and that Emily sang in the choir as a child. 
 
 Yvonne Selke "helped with our library, and she also helped in the faith formation program," Burr told NBC News. "She listened to prayers of the little children and was a substitute for the classroom." 
 
 Emily Selke, who attended second through eighth grade at the church school, "stayed close to the church," Burr said. "She was just a very special young woman." 
 
 "I'd like them to be remembered as just spiritual people who are close their church, close to their God [and] close to their community," she said. "And they'll be remembered for a long long time." 
 
 Ryan Ocksrider, a neighbor of the Selkes' in Nokesville, likewise described the Selkes as "nice people." 
 
 "Real shocking, you know," he told NBC News. "Life could be over in a flash. They were good people." 
 
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 I knew @umily_ a long time ago, as my brother's friend's little sister. I kept her entertained while they played Little League in summer. — Matt Killmon (@stillmoms) March 25, 2015 
 
 RIP @umily_. Will forever remember seeing La Dispute and The Menzingers with you at @EFactoryPhilly and all the laughs we had. — Deanna Chapman (@deechapman21) March 25, 2015 
 
 — Erik Ortiz and Kristen Welker ||||| Emily Selke of Nokesville, Va., shown in Scotland in 2013, died with her mother in the plane crash in the French Alps. (Xela Batchelder /AP) 
 
 A mother and daughter from Prince William County were among three Americans who perished when an Airbus jet plunged into a frozen ridge in the French Alps this week, officials said Wednesday. 
 
 Yvonne Selke, a longtime government contractor, and Emily Selke, a recent graduate of Drexel University, died Tuesday along with 148 others on the Germanwings flight from Spain to Germany. 
 
 Raymond Selke said he was too distraught to discuss the lives of his wife and daughter or why they were aboard the flight, but the family released a brief statement asking for time to heal. 
 
 “Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke,” the statement read. “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 mystery of why the plane plunged from its flight path endured Wednesday, even as top leaders from Europe monitored the investigation of the crash and recovery efforts continued near the southern French town of Seyne-les-Alpes. 
 
 [Officials: Flight recorder recovered but damaged] 
 
 France’s president was joined by the leaders of Germany and Spain in an Alpine pasture now used as a base for experts seeking to unravel what led to the crash. The three, walking side by side, were briefed on the grim recovery efforts in the snowbound French mountains. 
 
 Earlier in the day, one of the flight recorders — or black boxes — was recovered in a damaged state amid the wide debris field. The Associated Press reported that French investigators cracked open the black box and retrieved some audio from its cockpit voice recorder by Wednesday afternoon, hoping to gain their first insights into the possible causes of the crash. 
 
 Remi Jouty, director of the French aviation investigative agency, said the audio included sounds and voices. He said it was too early to draw any conclusions from the recorder. French President François Hollande, meanwhile, said the case for the second black box, the flight data recorder, had been found but not its contents, according to the AP. 
 
 In the D.C. area, family, friends and co-workers of the Selkes reacted with shock and grief to their deaths. Yvonne Selke was an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton for nearly 23 years, according to the company. She was working on a contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 
 
 “Yvonne was a wonderful co-worker and a dedicated employee,” Betty Thompson, an executive vice president, wrote in a statement. “We are in contact with her family to provide comfort and support, and are providing support options to her co-workers, as well.” 
 
 One former classmate said Yvonne Selke had kept in touch with some friends from the Class of 1975 at Springfield High School and had planned to attend their 40th reunion. 
 
 Emily Selke graduated with honors from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 2013, according to the school. She majored in music industry in the school’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. 
 
 An online résumé listed her as a community manager for an Alexandria firm that offers working space for professionals and a lifetime Girl Scout. The Drexel University Gamma Sigma Sigma chapter posted a message on Facebook saying Selke served as vice president of the service sorority. 
 
 Drexel professor Xela Batchelder said Selke became involved in an effort to start a local theater and music festival in Pittsburgh. Selke was interested in a career in the music industry, Batchelder said, and took classes on festival and entertainment management. 
 
 “What I really liked about her is that she knew what she wanted to do,” Batchelder said. “She took all these extra opportunities that weren’t required to learn more about festival management. She was a good self-starter.” 
 
 Batchelder said Selke went on a study-abroad trip to Edinburgh to take part in the city’s popular fringe festival. Batchelder said that Yvonne Selke joined her daughter for the Scotland trip and that the pair adored each other. 
 
 Taylor Miller, 21, said Emily Selke was well known at Woodbridge Senior High, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2010. Miller said Selke was a choir singer with a sweet-sounding voice and a writer whose words flowed off the page. Miller said that her creative-writing classmate stunned other students to silence when Selke read her work aloud. 
 
 “Everybody would just melt with what she wrote,” said Miller, of Keyser, W.Va. 
 
 Miller said Selke could be wickedly sarcastic with her humor, then wow friends a moment later with her kindness. 
 
 “She was the most open-minded, nicest person,” Miller said. “She didn’t care if you were a jock or an introvert. She wanted to get to know you. That’s why everyone gravitated to Emily — because she wanted to be around you, and people wanted to be around her.” 
 
 Miller said she once visited the Selkes’ Nokesville home and was blown away by the family’s idyllic cul-de-sac. 
 
 “She had the perfect life,” Miller said. “She had a nice house, nice clothes. But she was so humble. It didn’t matter who you were. She was always polite and kind.” 
 
 French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told France’s RTL radio that all theories about what might have caused the crash must be explored but that a terrorist attack was not the most likely scenario. 
 
 [The plane’s final moments, minute by minute ] 
 
 Bundled against strong winds, Hollande thanked the teams leading the efforts to reach the crash site by helicopter and by foot. He was accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. 
 
 Meanwhile, the human toll of the crash became clearer. Those lost included two babies, two opera singers, a pair of Iranian journalists, an Australian mother and her adult son vacationing together, and 16 German 10th-graders and their teachers returning from an exchange trip. 
 
 In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed the Selkes’ deaths but did not identify the third American victim. Most of the other dead were from Germany and Spain. She said U.S. officials were reviewing records to determine whether other Americans were on the flight as the recovery for bodies began. “We are in contact with family members and we extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the 150 people on board,” Psaki said in a statement. 
 
 Kirchner reported from Haltern, Germany. Daniela Deane in London and Jennifer Jenkins and Victoria St. Martin in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Families of Americans missing in Brussels since this week's deadly suicide bombings by Islamist militants were desperate on Thursday for any word of their loved ones after a false alarm that a missing U.S. couple had been found. 
 
 About a dozen Americans were hurt in Tuesday's attacks on Brussels' airport and a metro station, but there have been no confirmed U.S. fatalities so far, according to U.S. officials, who added that the situation remained very fluid. 
 
 At least 31 people were killed and more than 270 wounded in the blasts that were claimed by the Islamic State militant group and sent shockwaves across Europe and the world. 
 
 Among the U.S. citizens still unaccounted for were Justin and Stephanie Shults, originally from Tennessee and Kentucky but now living in Belgium. Adding to their relatives' anxiety, the Shults were wrongly said to have been located on Wednesday. 
 
 Justin's brother, Levi Sutton, said a State Department official told his mother the couple had been found, but that an hour later a social worker called the mother to say the information was incorrect. 
 
 "Nothing is clear at this point so I don't want to say anything else," Sutton told Reuters in a Facebook message. 
 
 It was not immediately clear what led to the confusion but when asked about the Shults family being given incorrect information, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, “We certainly apologize for any misunderstanding.” 
 
 The couple have not been heard from since they dropped off Stephanie's mother at the Brussels airport shortly before the check-in area was rocked by the powerful explosion. 
 
 Stephanie Shults works for food company Mars Inc., and Justin is employed by a filtration system company. 
 
 "We are working with authorities, and if you have any information that will help locate Stephanie and Justin, please message us directly," Mars said in a Facebook post. 
 
 Sutton said on Twitter that his mother would be arriving in Belgium on Thursday, "and hopefully she can get some answers." 
 
 Stephanie's mother had her hearing damaged by the blast but has vowed to remain in Belgium until her daughter and son-in-law are found, her sister Betty Newsom told NBC station WAVE. 
 
 "OFFICIAL AMERICANS" MISSING 
 
 The chairman of the U.S. House intelligence committee, Representative Devin Nunes of California, said on Wednesday that the attacks may have targeted Americans.. 
 
 The State Department's Toner said the government was aware of about a dozen U.S. citizens who had been wounded in the attacks and had no indication that any U.S. citizens had been killed. 
 
 He said among those still unaccounted for were two "official Americans," meaning they were U.S. government employees or their family members. That description could include both State Department employees, military employees or others, he said. 
 
 The United States has a large diplomatic and military presence in Brussels, including at the U.S. missions to Belgium, the European Union and NATO, which are headquartered in the city. 
 
 Counted among the Americans confirmed injured in the bombings were three missionaries from the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as a U.S. Air Force airman and four members of his family. 
 
 Sister and brother Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski, whose citizenship was unclear but who lived in New York, were also at the airport and are unaccounted for, U.S. media reports said. 
 
 The New York Daily News reported that the siblings had just arrived in Belgium and that they were speaking by telephone with a relative when the attackers struck. 
 
 "Please help find my boyfriend and his sister Alex Pinczowski Sascha Pinczowski," a New York woman named Cameron Cain appealed on Twitter. 
 
 (Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston and Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Alistair Bell)
– At least three Americans were aboard the passenger jet that crashed in the French Alps yesterday, including a mother and daughter from Virginia. Those two have been identified as Yvonne Selke, a veteran government contractor who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton in DC, and daughter Emily, a 2013 graduate of Drexel University. The third American killed has not been identified yet, reports NBC News. The Selkes are from Nokesville, Va., where Raymond Selke, husband and father to the victims, was too distraught to speak with the Washington Post. "Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke," the family said in a statement released later. "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 Selke's sorority, Gamma Sigma Sigma, posted a note on Facebook saying she "always put others before herself" and will be "greatly missed." She was working for Carr Workplaces of Alexandria, Va., reports AP. Her mother was working with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's satellite mapping office,