The flight was headed from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
A plane has crashed in the Southern French Alps with nearly 150 people on board. French President Francois Hollande said no survivors are expected, according to news agency AFP. (LIVE Blog)
Police and civil aviation officials said an Airbus 320, headed from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, had 142 passengers and six crew members on board.
The plane belonged to Germanwings, a popular low-cost German carrier owned by Lufthansa.
Debris from the crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 has been found, French interior ministry officials told news agency AFP. The pilot had sent a Mayday call to Air Traffic Controllers, said officials. "The pilots declared an emergency at 10:47 am local time while descending rapidly from a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet to around 5,000 feet, while flying over the town of Barcelonnette," reported The New York Times. (
Read the NYT article)
Barcelonnette is located about 100 km (65 miles) north of the French Riviera city of Nice.
The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to an online database.