A passenger plane with at least 148 passengers and crew on board may have crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday en route from Barcelona to the German city Dusseldorf, local French media reported.
The flight is said to be an Airbus A320 operated by the German Wings airline, according to La Provence, a French newspaper. It may have up to 150 passengers on board.
In a televised address, French President Francois Hollande said there aren’t likely to be any survivors given that the crash happened in such a remote area. “It’s a tragedy on our soil,” he said.
The airline said it was not yet able to confirm the crash.
“We have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any own confirmed information,” German Wings tweeted. Lufthansa spokeswoman Kim Jucknat said the airlines has launched an investigation.
German Wings is a subsidiary of German airline Lufthansa and is said to have a good safety record. It is a low-cost carrier known for taking passengers from Germany to areas along the Mediterranean popular with vacationers.