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Germanwings Airbus A320 crashes in French Alps with 150 people on board

• Airbus A320 carrying 150 people crashes in French Alps
• Germanwings Flight 9525 was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf
• Debris found at altitude of 6,500ft after crash near Digne les Bains
• "No survivors", says France's transport minister 
• German, Spanish and Turkish passengers among victims
• Germanwings crash: Timeline of European air disasters 
• Shares in Lufthansa and Airbus fall following Alps crash
Latest
13.14 Germanwings has also changed its logo to black and white as a mark of respect:



13.12 Gerard Monchablon, an Air France pilot, is speaking live on BFM TV now. He says the conditions were perfect. He was flying at the same time.
Quote It was a beautiful day, very sunny. The mountain is very steep, and there are no people living there - I can confirm that.
It was the only aircraft near me. Then two mirages [military planes] arrived. So I contacted Barcolenette to see if there was noise, but it didn't fall in an inhabited area.
13.10 The plane that crashed was called "Mannheim" and made its first test flight in November 1990.
It was then purchased by Lufthansa and had its first commercial flight in February 1991.
Experts said the aircraft would have been nearing the end of its commercial life after more than 24 years of service.
13.06 A room has been opened in Barcelona's Terminal 2 to attend to relatives of those who were on the flight.






13.04 It is not yet known whether any Britons were on board, although the Foreign Office says it is standing ready to assist if so:

Meanwhile, images have emerged of emergency units staging in Seyne-les-Alpes:






13.00 "Emergency, emergency" was the last distress signal received from the flight, according to reports.


12.55 Today's crash is France's most deadly since December 1, 1981, when a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-81 crashed in Corsica, killing 180 people. It was a chartered flight travelling from Brnik airport in Slovenia to Ajaccio in Corsica.


12.54 Here is a translation of Francois Hollande's speech, given moments ago alongside King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain, who happen to be in Paris today on their first state visit to a European country:
Quote A terrible accident has happened on French territory. An accident has happened, in circumstances which are not yet clear.
Among the victims are many Spaniards; I want to express my firmest condolences to the King of Spain, his wife, Prime Minister Rajoy and the Spanish people.
I know there are other victims - notably Turk and German. I do not think there are French victims, but we are not certain.
We wish to express our most sincere condolences.
I understand perfectly the King's decision [to cut short his visit to France], taken after discussion with the prime minister and myself. I want to confirm that we are doing everything possible to find out what happened.
The accident happened in an exceptionally difficult place, and it will not be possible to get to the site for several hours.
I wish to thank all the security services for their efforts.
The minister for the interior, Bernard Caseneuve, and for the environment, Segolene Royal, will be travelling to the site with the minister for transport.
I understand that German and Spanish ministers will also be there.
I have already spoken to Chancellor Merkel, who is particularly touched.
We are very close friends to Spain.
It is the King's first state visit to a European country. And we are grateful to him for that.
12.47 Germans, Spaniards and "probably" Turks were among the victims, Francois Hollande has said.
12.46 Spanish King Felipe VI has cut short his French state visit due to the crash
12.45 David Cameron has offered the support of the UK Air Accidents Investigation to help French investigators work out what caused the crash of the Germanwings Airbus A320.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman confirmed he had been informed of the "tragic" news and said the Foreign Office was trying to establish whether any Britons had been on board.
Mr Cameron's spokesman said:
Quote He would wish to express how his thoughts are very much with the families and friends of all of those who were on board that flight.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "shocked" about the crash of a German airliner in the French Alps Tuesday with all 148 people on board believed dead, her spokesman said.
The German leader spoke to French President Francois Hollande and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy by telephone and "cancelled her appointments to follow developments", the spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement.
12.43 The crash site is a two and a half hour walk from the nearest settlement, and is inaccessible by land vehicles. Here is a first picture of the remote valley:







12.39 Germanwings has posted a following updated statement via Twitter:
Quote UPDATE: We are sorry to confirm that flight 4U9525 has crashed on the flight from BCN to DUS over the French Alps. It is a A320 aircraft. On board were 144 passengers and 6 crew members. Lufthansa and German Wings have connected a telephone hotline on freephone number 0800 11 33 55 77, to inform relatives of passengers and look after [them]. All employees of the German Wings and Lufthansa are deeply distressed and their thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew.
12.31 Lufthansa has changed its logo on Twitter to grey and black.
12.27 Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy is now speaking, and says a crisis meeting has been held.
Quote I have had a phone conservation with German chancellor Merkel... I have spoken to the King, who is in France.
I am very sad at this very dramatic accident. We are going to do everyting we can ... to help the families, to give them our support. I hope you understand that I can't talk about anything different to what I just said.




A Germanwings Airbus A320 (AFP/GETTY)




12.26 No adverse weather conditions were reported that could explain the crash, according to French media.
It is not known what was said in the distress call made by the flight shortly before it crashed.
12.23 Pierre-Henry Brandet, interior ministry spokesman, said that "plane debris has been localised".
Quote The first witness reports from rescue services suggests there are no survivors, and if there are any, there will be very few.
Rescue teams have been helicoptered to the area. We're talking about a huge team of several hundred men with local and national means.
A 240-man emergency team has been dispatched to the area to help local services and mountain rescue experts.
Forensic teams are also on their way.
Germanwings is to hold press conference at Cologne airport at 2pm local time, near the airline's headquarters.
12.19 Airport staff walk to a non-public area where people waiting for the Germanwings flight from Barcelona have been brought at the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany





12.15 A distress call was registered shortly before the plane crashed, showing it "at 5,000ft in an abnormal situation". Alain Vidalies, minister of state for transport, said:
Quote A distress call was registered at 10:47. The distress signal showed the plane was at 5,000 feet in an abnormal situation.
12.13 France's transport minister has said "There are no survivors".





12.04 Forty-five of the passengers are thought to be Spanish, according to Spain's deputy prime minister.
12.02 There is no confirmation yet on the nationalities of the victims. The Foreign Office said:
Quote We are urgently working with local authorities to establish the nationalities of those on board
11.58 Lufthansa, the parent airline of Germanwings, says this is "a dark day for Lufthansa", but that it still hopes to find survivors:




11.55 Francois Hollande has expressed his "solidarity and condolences" with Germany in phone call to Angela Merkel
11.50 Yvan Théaudin, mountain guide in Prads Haute Bléone, said
Quote These are mountains that are hard to access, above all in winter, very steep slopes, so they we need specialised mountain services. The helicopters will have a hard job searching this afternoon as we are expecting poor weather.
The best way is to go by helicopter as near as possible then by foot, or on skis, as the highest areas are 3,000m up.
Emergency services have left from Marseille in direction of crash.
11.48 Shares in Lufthansa and Airbus have fallen sharply since news of the crash broke, writes Alan Tovey, the Telegraph's industry editor:









11.43 Gordon Rayner, the Telegraph's chief reporter, sums up what we know so far:
 A German passenger jet has crashed in the French Alps with all 148 passengers and crew feared dead.
The Airbus A320, operated by the budget airline Germanwings, was en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it vanished from radar screens at 09.39 local time.
Flight GWI18G came down near Prads-Haute-Bléone, between Digne-les-Bains and Barcelonnette, north-west of Monaco. It was flying at 6,800ft at the time, suggesting the wreckage is located 6,800ft above sea level on a mountainside.
Francois Hollande, the French president, said no survivors were expected to be found, after two gendarmerie helicopters flew over the crash site.
Read in full: Airbus A320 crash in the Alps
11.42 A witness has told French radio station Europe 1 that "the plane was flying lower than normal".
11.41 The crashed Airbus A320 was 24 years old.
The A320 is one of Airbus’s biggest selling aircraft, with nearly 3,900 delivered and almost 7,600 ordered in total.
The single aisle, twin-engine jet typically seats about 150 passengers in a two-class cabin or 180 in high-density layouts for shorter or charter routes.
11.35 Henry Samuel reports from Paris:
 Locals say the zone is "particularly difficult" to access.
The last major deadly aviation accident to hit France was the July 25, 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde en route for New York into a hotel outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing 113 people, including four on the ground.
Airbus says there is "no information" at this stage on the circumstances of the crash.
11.31 This graph from FlightRadar24 shows how the plane lost altitude and speed prior to disappearing from the radar.






11.29 Shares in Airbus, the European aerospace giant, have slumped on news of the accident, down 1.77 percent to 58.94 euros at 1100 GMT after briefly sliding two per cent.
11.28 Debris from the plane has already been found at an altitude of around 6,500ft, says French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
11.27 Francois Hollande said the area of the crash was remote and it was not clear whether anyone on the ground had been hurt.
Quote The accident happened in a zone that is particularly hard to access. It's a tragedy on our soil.
Mr Hollande said it was probable that a number of the victims are German, adding he would be speaking shortly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
11.25 This is the first major disaster involving a Germanwings plane.
In 1993, a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Warsaw overshot the runway and crashed. The plane caught fire and 2 people were killed - a co-pilot and a passenger.
11.22 Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, said he has sent Bernard Cazeneuve, the country's interior minister, to the scene. A crisis team has been set up to coordinate France's response to the incident.
11.21 Speaking outside Downing Street after Cabinet, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said:
Quote My heart goes out to the family and friends of those who have lost their lives in this devastating air crash. It must be the most traumatic time.
11.12 Francois Hollande, the French president, has said that there are likely to be no survivors:
Quote There are not thought to be any survivors. The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors.
Eric Ciotti, the head of the regional council, said search-and-rescue teams were headed to the crash site at Meolans-Revels.








11.05 The crashed plane had been used recently for flights between Spain, Germany, Britain and Austria, according to FlightRader24. It flew to London Heathrow from Dusseldorf and back on Sunday afternoon.
Its details are:
• Registration: D-AIPX 
• Type: A320-211
• Airline: Germanwings
Germanwings is a low-cost airline found in 2002. Since 2009 it has been owned by Lufthansa, the Germany-based airline that is the largest in Europe.


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11.03 There was "a loss of radar of Germanwings flight GWI18G," a civil aviation official has told AFP.
11.01 In a statement on Twitter, Germanwings said: "We have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any own confirmed information.

10.52 The plane disappeared from the radar at 09.39 GMT, after having taken off from Barcelona airport at 08.55:

It was flying at 6,800 feet at the time, according to Flight Radar.


10.50 The plane crashed at the foot of Prads-Haute-Bléone, between Digne-les-Bains and Barcelonnette, two helicopters of the gendarmerie confirmed to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

10.46 An Airbus A320 carrying 148 people has crashed in the Alps in southeastern France.
French authorities confirmed the Germanwings plane was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it disappeared from radar.
142 passengers, two pilots and four stewards were on board.
It crashed in the Massif des Trois évêchs in the valley of Haute-Bléone, in the region of Digne.
Emergency services are on their way.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11491587/Airbus-A320-crashes-in-French-Alps-with-148-people-on-board-live.html
https://de.screen.yahoo.com/pr-sident-hollande-flugzeug-frankreich-114912799.html