German airliner crashes in southern France; 150 feared dead

An Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed on Tuesday in southern France en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, police and aviation officials said. All 150 passengers on board the aircraft are feared dead.

Germanwings' Managing Director Oliver Wagner said his company could not yet give a reason for the plane crash and would investigate the matter. The plane's black box, which records cockpit communications and flight data, has been found, according to French officials.

"Our deep sympathy goes out to the relatives and friends of the victims," Wagner said. The Airbus 320 was carrying 150 people, including two pilots and four flight attendants.

"The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors," said French President François Hollande. Passengers included Germans, Spaniards and probably Turks, he added. He said he could not say with "total certainty" that no French nationals were aboard the flight.

Jen Psaki, the spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State, said that the U.S. was "reviewing whether any U.S. citizens were aboard the flight" and that the U.S. "stands ready to offer assistance."

"The site is a picture of horror. The grief of the families and friends is immeasurable," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after being flown over the crash scene. "We must now stand together. We are united in our great grief."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel on Wednesday to the crash site, she said Tuesday, calling it a shock that has plunged Germany, France and Spain into "deep mourning." There were about 67 Germans on the flight. 

Family members arriving at the Düsseldorf airport were taken from the main terminal to a nearby building, which airport employees partially covered with sheets for privacy. At the Barcelona airport, police escorted several crying women to a secure part of the airport. One woman held a jacket over the head of another woman, who was sobbing.

At a press conference on Tuesday in Cologne, Germany, the airline said the plane began descending one minute after reaching its cruising altitude. It continued descending for eight minutes.

"The aircraft's contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers ended at 10:53 a.m. at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed," said Germanwings official Thomas Winkelmann. He added that Lufthansa Technik performed routine maintenance on the aircraft on Monday. 

Germanwings is a low-cost carrier owned by Lufthansa, Germany's biggest airline, and serves mostly European destinations. Tuesday's crash was its first involving passenger deaths since it began operating in 2002. The Germanwings logo, normally maroon and yellow, was blacked out on its Twitter feed.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr called it the "blackest day of our company's 60-year history." He insisted, however, that flying "remains after this terrible day the safest mode of transport.

Debris from the crash was reportedly found near Barcelonette, a remote, mountainous, snowbound area near the border with Italy about 65 miles north of Nice in the French Riveria.

The owner of a campground near the crash site, Pierre Polizzi, said he heard the plane making curious noises shortly before it crashed. "At 11:30 [a.m.], I heard a series of loud noises in the air. There are often fighter jets flying over, so I thought it sounded just like that. I looked outside, but I couldn't see any fighter planes," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "The noise I heard was long — like eight seconds — as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane. There was another long noise after about 30 seconds."

Polizzi said the plane crashed 3 to 11 miles from his place, which is closed for the season. "It's going to be very difficult to get there. The mountain is snowy and very hostile," he said.

The nearby municipal sports hall of Seyne-les-Alpes was being set up to take bodies from the crash, according to local official Sandrine Julien.

"Everything is pulverized. The largest pieces of debris is the size of a small car. No one can access the site from the ground," Gilbert Sauvan, the president of the general council for Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, told The Associated Press.

Photos of the crash site from La Provence newspaper showed scattered black spots across a mountain and several larger airplane body sections with windows, five in one piece and four in another. France's prime minister said a helicopter crew that landed briefly in the area saw no signs of life.

Hollande spoke briefly with Merkel to express solidarity after the crash. Spanish King Felipe has canceled his state visit to France but met with Hollande Tuesday morning before ending his visit.

The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to the online database Airfleets.net. The A320 family has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a Boeing safety analysis.

Al Jazeera and wire services