Passenger Plane Crashed in Alps

Air monitoring service reported that radio contact was lost with the aircraft GWI18G belonged to Germanwings company (presence of 142 passengers, two pilots and four service personnel on board is confirmed, "- General Administration of Civil Aviation of France said in a communique.

"At 10 hours and 47 minutes, it was announced the state of calamity on this flight near Barcelonnette district in Alpes de Haute Provence," – was said in the statement.

French gendarmerie helicopters, which went to the scene, confirmed the plane crash near the commune of Prads-Haute-Bléone.

Location of debris has already been localized. But the accident occurred in the remote mountainous area, at an altitude of about 2000 meters above sea level, what makes faster arrival of rescue and emergency services very difficult.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced that the Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve immediately set off to the crash site. According to the government, there is little chance that anyone in the airplane could survive. "The cause of the incident is still unknown", - said Waltz.

"This is a tragedy in our land," - said President Francois Hollande about the incident. This accident is the first major air disaster on France territory since 2000, when the Concorde airliner crashed.

A320 took off from the airport of Barcelona - El Prat at about 10 am local time on Tuesday. The liner should have arrived In Dusseldorf airport at 11:55 on schedule.

After about forty minutes after departure last radio contact with the flight 9525 was caught when a distress signal was sent from the board. And about 40 minutes later, it disappeared from the radar.

It is reported that the passengers mostly were Germans.

Germanwings is German airline-lowcoster, based in Cologne. Hub in Düsseldorf, where the ill-fated flight flew from the Catalan capital, serves about 50 destinations.

As of last year April, among others, the company's fleet numbered seven Airbus A320-200, 41 Airbus A319-100 aircrafts and 23 Bombardier CRJ900. However, as reported by the media referring to the online database airfleets.net, the crashed plane A320 was 24 years old and was operated by Lufthansa affiliated with Germanwings. The liner made its first flight in November 29, 1990, and was passed to Lufthansa only in February 1991. The plane was transferred to Germanwings in 2003, and then again returned to Lufthansa in 2004, but was re-acquired by Germanwings in January last year.

After media reported about the plane crash, the shares of both Lufthansa and Germanwings fell in price.

Circumstances of the incident remain a mystery. According to information published in French media, the plane was flying too low.

As Der Tagesspiegel reported, when a distress signal from the aircraft was received, the A320 was at an altitude of 1500 meters. Typically, the machine should have been flying at height of 9000 m. at this time. Experts believe, however, that the pilots first tried to bring the situation under control before they gave the signal about the incident.

In case of a serious fault on board, pilots could redirect the plane at any of the airports located on the route between Barcelona and Düsseldorf, suggest the French media, calling not only Marseille airport, but the airport in Istres-Le Tube with the longest runway band in France.