Paris: After an Airbus A320 crashed today in the French Alps with all 150 people on board feared dead, the Lufthansa Airlines Chief tweeted, "We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525."
"If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors," added Carsten Spohr.
The plane belonged to Germanwings, a low-cost affiliate of German airline Lufthansa based in Cologne which had no fatal accidents
The German airliner crashed near a ski resort in one of the worst ever plane disasters in the country.
France's transport minister said there were "no survivors" from the crash of the Germanwings Airbus A320.
The plane was travelling from the Spanish coastal city of Barcelona to the German city of Duesseldorf when it went down in the Barcelonnette area in southeastern France.
The airliner, which was carrying 144 passengers and six crew, issued a distress call at 10:47 am (0947 GMT), civil aviation authorities said.
The single-aisle A320 typically seats 150 to 180 people. Germanwings had no immediate comment on what caused the crash.
"We have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any confirmed information," it said in a statement.
"As soon as definite information is available, we shall inform the media immediately," it said, urging people to monitor its website
www.germanwings.com.
A spokesman for Airbus, the European aerospace giant, said it could not make any comment "for the moment"."We have no information on the circumstances of the accident," the spokesman told news agency AFP, adding that the company had opened a "crisis cell".