Germanwings plane with 148 on board crashes in French Alps

French President Francois Hollande says no survivors expected

An Airbus operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote area of southern France on Tuesday and all 148 on board were feared dead.

The local La Provence newspaper said the Airbus A320 was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, citing aviation officials.

A civil aviation official said, 148 people were onboard, including six crew members.

The official said there had been "a loss of radar of Germanwings flight GWI18G," which is thought to have been carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four stewards.

A spokesperson for the DGAC aviation authority said the airplane crashed near the town of Barcelonnette about 100 km north of the French Riviera city of Nice.

Lufthansa's Germanwings unit said it was as yet unable to verify reports of the crash.

The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to online database airfleets.net.

Causes of crash not yet know: French PM

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the causes of the crash were not yet known.

"We of course don't know the reasons for the crash," Valls told reporters.

"We obviously fear that the 142 to 150 passengers and crew died today, given the conditions of this crash."

Valls said he had activated the ministerial crisis cell to help coordinate the aftermath of the crash.

He added that he had sent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to the site of the incident.

No survivors expected in French Alps plane crash: Hollande

French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of the 148 people on board the Germanwings plane that crashed on Tuesday had survived.

"There were 148 people on board," Hollande said.

"The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified,  lead us to think there are no survivors."

He said there was likely to be a significant number of German victims.

He added: "The accident happened in a zone that is particularly hard to access."

Company trying to assess situation: airbus spokesperson

The airbus spokesperson said Germanwings is trying to assess the situation after reports of plane crash in France.

 

INFO: We have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any own confirmed information...

— Eurowings (@eurowings) March 24, 2015

... As soon as definite information is available, we shall inform the media immediately ...

— Eurowings (@eurowings) March 24, 2015

 

Missing Germanwings plane took off from Barcelona airport at 0855 GMT: Aena

The Airbus plane had taken off from Barcelona airport at 0855 GMT, a spokesperson for Spain's airport operator Aena said.

The spokeswoman declined to give any additional detail on the plane or who was on board.

Don’t know yet what happened: Lufthansa chief

Lufthansa chief says 'don't know yet what happened' to crashed Germanwings flight.

 

"We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew 1/2

— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) March 24, 2015

"...on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors.“ Carsten Spohr 2/2

— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) March 24, 2015

 

Germany gov't sends minister, experts to French plane crash site

The German government said it was sending air safety experts and its transport minister to the site of a plane crash in France involving GermanWings and the foreign minister said his thoughts were with victims' relatives.

"In these difficult hours our thoughts are with all those who must fear their relatives are among the passengers or crew members," said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt will travel to the crash site in southern France, his ministry said, adding that German air safety experts were already on their way.

'No survivors' in French Alps plane crash: transport minister

"There are no survivors" from the Germanwings plane that crashed, French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said.

"A distress call was registered at 10:47. The distress signal showed the plane was at 5,000 feet in an abnormal situation," said the minister of state for transport, adding that the crash happened shortly after the distress signal.

45 passengers Spanish: Spain’s deputy PM

Some 45 people travelling on the Lufthansa operated Germanwings plane had Spanish surnames, a spokesman for Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.

"The deputy prime minister said there were 45 people on board with Spanish surnames," the spokesperson said.

Hollande gives Merkel 'support' over Airbus crash: French presidency

French President Francois Hollande offered support to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Hollande "extended all his support" to Merkel during a phone call, the French presidency said in a statement, while the German ambassador to France said she would visit the crash site in the southern Alps within hours.

Germanwings says will do everything possible to clear up crash

Germanwings' managing director Oliver Wagner said his company could not give any reasons for the plane crash in France yet but would do everything it could to find out what happened.

"Our deep sympathy goes out to the relatives and friends of the victims," Wagner said.

Germanwings, which is the low-cost unit of German flag carrier Lufthansa, was scheduled to hold a news conference at 1400 GMT at its head office in Cologne.

Germany's Merkel to travel to Germanwings crash site in France

Chancellor Angela Merkel was "deeply shaken" by news of Germanwings crash, her spokesperson said.

She said she will travel on Wednesday to the site of crash in France.

She called the crash a shock which had plunged Germany, France and Spain into "deep mourning".

"I will travel there tomorrow to get my own impression and to speak with local officials," the chancellor told reporters.

Germans, Spaniards, 'probably' Turks among dead in crash

French President Francois Hollande said the 150 people killed in Tuesday's plane crash in the French Alps included Germans, Spaniards and "probably" Turks.

He said that he could not say with "total certainty" that no French nationals were aboard the Germanwings flight that crashed in a remote, snowbound area while en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany.

Spanish PM 'shocked' by French Airbus crash, sets up crisis cell

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Tuesday he was "shocked" by the crash and had set up a crisis cell.

"I can't provide any information, all the information I have is preliminary. It is dramatic and sad news with the loss of many lives," he told reporters in the northern Basque Country.

Rajoy said he had suspended his agenda to follow developments and had set up a crisis cell.

He said he had spoken by telephone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and with Spain's King Felipe VI, who was on a state visit to France, his first since ascending the throne last year.

"Shocked by the air accident in the Alps. A tragedy. We are cooperating with the French and German authorities in the investigation," Rajoy said earlier in a Twitter message after French officials said nobody survived the accident.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, who is in charge of the crisis cabinet, said there were 45 people with Spanish-sounding surnames on board the plane which was travelling to the German city of Dusseldorf. It was not immediately clear how many of them were Spanish citizens.

Transport Minister Ana Pastor was heading to the southern French city of Marseille to be near the area of the crash in the ski resort area of Barcelonnette.

Germanwings had clean safety record

Germanwings, the low-cost airline owned by German flag carrier Lufthansa, said that none of its aircraft has ever been involved in a crash prior to Tuesday's loss.

"We've never had a total loss of aircraft in the company's history until now," a company spokeswoman told AFP.

An Airbus A320 belonging to Germanwings en route from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf in Germany disappeared from radar screens on Tuesday.

Germanwings said there were 144 passengers and six crew on the aircraft.

Germanwings is the low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa and is currently being expanded by the parent company to handle most of its domestic and European flights, taking off and landing at airports other than Lufthansa's two main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

With its trademark yellow and purple colours, it originally started life as part of Eurowings, but became a separate company in 2002.

Lufthansa fully acquired the Cologne-based subsidiary in 2009.

Its fleet comprises Airbus A320-200 and A319-100 jets, according to the Lufthansa website.

In 2012, it emerged that there had been a serious incident involving one of Germanwings' aircraft at the end of 2010, when pilots were badly affected by fumes and complained of a burning smell in the cockpit as the plane approached Cologne airport.

Germanwings was accused of playing down the incident.

The low-cost carrier has around 2,000 employees and it carried around 16 million passengers in the year to July 2014.

Germanwings succeeded in narrowing its losses in 2014, despite financial fallout from a pilots strike, and hopes to break even for the first time in 2015.

Germanwings says plane crashed after eight-minute descent

Germanwings said its Airbus A320 aircraft started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.

"The aircraft's contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers ended at 10:53am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed," Lufthansa unit Germanwings' Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told journalists at a news conference.

Winkelmann also said that routine maintenance of the aircraft was performed by Lufthansa Technik on Monday.

Black box found at plane crash site

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said a black box had been found on Tuesday following the crash of an Airbus A320 Germanwings plane in the French Alps.

"A black box was found and will be delivered to investigators," Cazeneuve told reporters.