Breaking: Germanwings A320 Flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf Crashes in French Alps … 144 Passengers & 6 Crew Feared Dead (Update French President Says Likely No Survivors)

A Germanwings Flight 4U9525, Airbus A320 crash in French Alps near Digne, with 150 people on board, 144 passengers and 6 crew members. Germanwings is a low-cost, economy airline subsidiary of Lufthansa Airlines. Flight 4U9525 was traveling from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. According to sources quoted by AFP news agency, the plane had issued a distress call at 10:47 (09:47 GMT), 5:47 ET.  According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24, Germanwings Flight 4U9525 climbed to 38,000 feet before it started to descend, and the signal was lost at 6,800 feet. The A320 disappeared off the radar before crashing near Digne-les-Bains.

An Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in southern France on Tuesday and all 148 on board were feared dead.

French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of those on board had survived.

“There were 148 people on board,” Hollande said. “The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors.”

VIDEO – BBC

•  A Germanwings Airbus A320 has crashed in French Alps near Digne, with 148 people on board
• Flight 4U 9525 was travelling between Barcelona and Duesseldorf
• French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of those on board had survived
• Cologne-based Germanwings says it was aware of reports
• The low-cost airline owned by giant German carrier Lufthansa

Updates and Live reporting from the BBC.

Lufthansa Twitter

UPDATE I: French President Francois Hollande Says, ‘Apparently No Survivors’ After Passenger Plane Crashes in France.

French President Francois Hollande has expressed his “solidarity and condolences” with Germany in phone call to Angela Merke.

“I want to express my solidarity to the family of the victims. We do not yet know the identities of the victims. It is a mourning we have to go through because it is a tragedy that has happened on our soil,” he said.

UPDATE II:  Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, released a statement:

“We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors,” said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr in the statement.

UPDATE III: Airbus A320 crash in the Alps: Francois Hollande says 148 feared dead, no survivors expected.

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 just 6,800ft at the time and Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, said debris had been found at an altitute of 6,500ft.

A distress signal, thought to have been sent by aircraft’s automatically-activated crash position indicator, was picked up at 10.47 local time, showing that the aircraft was “at 5,000ft in an abnormal situation”, said Alain Vidalies, the French transport minister.

Pic – UK Telegraph

UPDATE IV: Why did 9525 plummet from 40,000ft?

The 24 year old plane, built by the French Airbus consortium, transmitted a distress signal at 9.47am local time,  with one unconfirmed report saying it was sent out at 6,800 feet.

The distress call, typically transmitted in a general aircraft emergency, did not give any additional information about the type of emergency.

The aircraft was flying at its normal cruising altitude of around 40,000 ft, but within 10 minutes made a staggeringly swift descent to around 6,200 feet.

This points to a major problem with the aircraft, and suggests the two pilots were struggling to control the plummeting aircraft.

This graph from FlightRadar24 shows how the plane lost altitude and speed prior to disappearing from the radar.

UPDATE V:  Bodies are being taken to a local village gym, it is being used as a temporary morgue as bodies are being recovered.

UPDATE VI: The crash site is a two and a half hour walk from the nearest settlement, and is inaccessible by land vehicles. Pics from rescue helicopter.

UPDATE VII: French officials said a police helicopter had located the crash site and first items of debris near the small town of Barcelonnette in the Alpes-de-Hautes-Provences.

UPDATE VIII - Total of 150 people on board Germanwings flight

Germanwings has confirmed the number of people on board as 150.

This includes 144 passengers and six cabin crew.