An Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, a low cost subsidiary of Germany’s Lufthansa enroute from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed in Southern France on Tuesday, according to a source from Los Angeles Times. It was initially reported that the A320 was carrying at least 142 passengers and 6 crew members, (with the total passengers later updated to 144), which crashed in a remote site popular for skiing called Meolans-Revels in Southern France. The area where the plane went down is near a popular ski resort, which is in the French Alps region.
French President Francious Hollande said in a press briefing that he wasn’t expecting any survivors and cited that there were probably a substantial number of German nationality on the flight but did not give details of all the nationalities involved.
“It’s a tragedy on our soil,” he said, adding he would be speaking shortly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to the Associated Press, regional official Eric Ciotti was cited as saying wreckage from the plane had been discovered at Meolans-Revels, near a popular ski resort and west of the town of Digne-les-Bains. The main wreckage was believed to be on the side of a mountain, which is inaccessible by roads and covered in heavy snow.
French President Francois Hollande also said search and rescue teams are not really expecting to find any survivors from the crash.
Guardian reports as follows:
“A distress call was made by the aircraft at 10.47am, while the plane was “in an abnormal situation”, the French transport ministry said. The crash happened shortly afterwards, it added.
The aircraft disappeared off the radar at around 11.20am, Le Figaro reported. The plane dropped from 11,500 metres to 2,100 metres (38,000ft to 7,000ft) in nine minutes between 10.31am and 10.40am, air radar services said.
The distress call to air traffic control in Marseilles was “mayday, mayday, mayday” and the pilot requested an emergency descent, meaning all airspace had to be cleared below the route of the aircraft.”
