AN Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in southern France yesterday with all 150 people on board 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.”

    He said there was likely to be a significant number of Germans on the flight from Barcelona in Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany.

    He added: “The accident happened in a zone that is particularly hard to access.”

    “It’s a tragedy on our soil,” he said, adding he would be speaking shortly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    A spokesman for France’s DGAC aviation authority said the airliner crashed near the town of Barcelonnette, about 100 km north of the French Riviera city of Nice. A statement from the prime minister’s office said the crash happened in Meolans-Revel, a remote and sparsely inhabited commune in the foothills of the French Alps.

    France’s interior ministry said debris has been located on the Alps at an altitude of around 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) following the crash.

    The German federal bureau of aircraft accident investigation sent three people to France to join the investigation, spokesman Germout Freitag said.

    French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the country’s top security official, was heading to the crash site.

    The plane left Barcelona just after 10 a.m. local time and had been due to arrive in Dusseldorf at 11:49 a.m. It is thought the flight became lost on radar at 6,800 feet.

    The area where the plane went down is near a popular ski resort.

    Airbus said it was aware of reports about the crash.

    “We are aware of the media reports,” Airbus said on Twitter. “All efforts are now going towards assessing the situation. We will provide further information as soon as available.”

    In a statement via 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. As soon as definite information is available, we shall inform the media immediately. Please monitor our website for periodic updates.”

    The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to online database airfleets.net.

    The Department of Foreign Affairs has said there is no information as yet as to the nationalities of those on board.

    (SD-Agencies)