German Airbus A320 plane crashes in French Alps

The Airbus A320 making the flight for Lufthansa’s lowcost arm, Germanwings, crashed near the small mountain village of Barcelonette in the southern Alps. It had made a distress call at 10.47am then disappeared off the radar at around 11.20am, Le Figaro reported.

The French TV station iTele said there had been at least 142 passengers and six crew-members on board.

A French interior ministry spokesman said debris had been located and the plane crashed at 2,000 metres altitude in the Alps.

Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM television that he expected “an extremely long and extremely difficult” search and rescue operation because of the area’s remoteness. He said the passenger manifest was being verified.

The French president, François Hollande, said it was likely there were no survivors.

He said the crash happened in “an area that was very difficult to access” and did not know yet whether any homes had been affected on the ground. “Solidarity is our first sentiment at this moment,” he said.

Eric Ciotti, the head of the regional council, said search-and-rescue teams were headed to the crash site at Meolans-Revels.

Airbus said it was aware of reports about the crash. 

“We are aware of the media reports,” Airbus said on Twitter. “All efforts are now going towards assessing the situation. We will provide further information as soon as available.”

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

Source: Theguardian