Airbus A320 plane crashes in France with 150 on board
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An Airbus A320 plane crashed in the southern French Alps today, officials confirmed.
The Agence France Press news agency said 148 people were on board, and debris was found near a French village. No survivors are expected, French officials said.
The flight, 4U9525, from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, departed at approximately 10am this morning local time. It was due to arrive at the German airport just before noon.
The flight had reached an altitude of above 30,000 feet before a distress call was received from the flight in progress.
It is thought the flight became lost on radar at 6,800ft (2,073m). The area where the plane went down is near a popular ski resort.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar 24 reported the last known location of the flight, according to its systems, as just above the commune of Digne-les-Bains, approximately 115km northeast of Marseille. The site's systems lost track of the flight approximately 50 minutes after takeoff.
Last position of Germanwings flight #4U9525 at 09:40 UTChttp://t.co/FHoX6q0GHt pic.twitter.com/72pxGKolRM
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 24, 2015
In a brief address to the media, French President Francois Hollande said no survivors are expected, a statement the French transport minister later repeated.
President Hollande said: "An aeroplane of the Germanwings company has just crashed near to Digne.
“I want to express all my solidarity with the families of the victims. A counselling unit will be established to provide psychological support.
Je veux exprimer aux familles des victimes de cet accident aérien toute ma solidarité. C'est un deuil, une tragédie.
— François Hollande (@fhollande) March 24, 2015
“I will discuss the incident with (Germany’s) Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish King Philip VI, who is visiting us today. As we wait, our first feeling should be one of solidarity.”
He added: “I will have meetings with Chancellor Merkel because there were a number of German victims, and I will also contact the King of Spain.
“This is an air tragedy and we will try to understand the reasons and causes of the accident, and obviously we will give the concerned authorities as well as the victims support.
“This is a mourning period, because this is a tragedy that has happened on our territory. I intend to find out if there were other consequences of the accident ... and we will find out more in the hours to come.”
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been sent to the site of the incident.
Flight operator Germanwings said it was unaware of any "confirmed information".
In a series of tweets immediately following the news, it said: "we have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any own confirmed information."
"As soon as definite information is available, we shall inform the media immediately. Please monitor our website for periodic updates."
The Airbus A320 is used by a large number of commercial airlines, including Aer Lingus, where it makes up 33 of the 47 planes, as well as Air France and British Airways. It can hold up to 180 passengers.
Airbus said it was aware of the news, and "all efforts are now going towards assessing the situation."
Germanwings is owned by Lufthansa to operate its short-haul flights. Its CEO, Carsten Spohr, released a brief statement over social media.
"We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525," he said. "My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors."
The German federal bureau of aircraft accident investigation is sending three people to France to join the investigation, spokesman Germout Freitag said.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the crash but had no details on the nationalities of victims.
