A phone recording surviving the crash isn't too implausible. Remember that it doesn't need the whole phone to come through in one piece, only the memory chip (possibly an SD card).<p>On the other hand, the reason I'm very skeptical about this story is this part: "Near the end there was reportedly a heavy shake and the cabin tilted sharply to one side. After further screams the video ended, Bild said."<p>The impact speed has been estimated at about 700 km/h, or about 200 metres per second. The fuselage of an A320 is 37 metres long. First impact to complete destruction would take about 1/10 of a second; the described sequence of events takes far too long to be plausible. (The only way it might work is if the first impact was on a wingtip.)
"but French police say story is false" ... ""Considering that everything on the plane was destroyed, it would be unusual for a mobile phone to survive the impact""