Germanwings A320 Passenger Jet With 150 Aboard Crashes in Southern French Alps

Germanwings A319

Germanwings Airbus A320 en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf with around 150 people on board crashed in southern France Tuesday; the passengers are feared dead.

The Airbus came down in a remote, snow-covered mountainous region – reaching about 2,000m high – near the popular ski resort of Pra Loup in the Alps.

Rescuers are on their way to the area. The debris has been located by helicopter, but there is no access to the site by road.

Weather in the area at the time of the crash was described as calm, but it is now deteriorating and there are forecasts of snow on Wednesday (25 March).

According to media reports, the first debris have been found. German airline company Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by Lufthansa, confirmed that 144 passengers and 6 crew members were on board the plane. French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said there were no survivors.

45 passengers on the crashed Airbus A320 are believed to be Spanish citizens, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said, according to Reuters. Most of the passengers on the Germanwings plane that crashed Tuesday are German nationals, who were returning home after spending a few days in Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, Swissport workers said. Two children are among the passengers of the plane, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported.