What we know about the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps

Updated on March 24, 2015 at 2:56 p.m. | A Germanwings Airbus A320 plane carrying 144 passengers, including two babies, and six crew members crashed Tuesday in the French Alps, the airline confirmed today.

“The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors,” French President François Hollande said in a briefing Tuesday.

The plane’s blackbox also was recovered, said the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the Associated Press later reported via Twitter.

BREAKING: French interior minister: A black box has been found at plane crash site in French Alps.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2015

The passenger jet left Dusseldorf at 9:55 a.m. and was headed to Barcelona, before it crashed in the mountainous region of southern France, near the town of Digne-les-Bains. Eric Ciotti, the head of the regional council in southeast France, said access to the crash site will take time as search-and-rescue teams navigate through the snow-covered mountains.

Germanwings is a budget airline owned by Lufthansa, which is Germany’s biggest airline. The head of Lufthansa expressed condolences on Twitter for the family and friends of the passengers and crew members aboard Flight 4U 9525.

“If our fear are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa,” Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said in the 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 1/2

— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) March 24, 2015

"…on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors.“ Carsten Spohr 2/2

— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) March 24, 2015

The plane never issued a distress signal before it crashed, according to the French aviation authority, the Associated Press reported.

This contradicted initial reports that stated that the plane sent out a distress call about 52 minutes after take-off and crashed at an altitude of 6,550 feet, said Pierre-Henry Brandet, the French Interior Ministry spokesman. But according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, the plane crashed at 6,800 feet. Air traffic control lost contact with the plane at 10:53 a.m.

Germanwings official Thomas Winkelmann told reporters in Cologne that the plane began descending after reaching a cruising height of 38,000 feet. The descent lasted eight minutes, he added.

Although nationalities of the passengers weren’t readily available yet, authorities believe there were 67 German nationals on board.

The Associated Press reported that, according to Boeing safety analyses, the A320 has a good safety record. It remains unclear what exactly felled the plane. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said there were no ties to terrorism at this time.

Single-aisle Airbus A320s are the workhorses of the global fleet & proliferate across European skies #4U9525 pic.twitter.com/pe6OCMiy0q

— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) March 24, 2015

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said she was “deeply shocked” by the news, will travel to the crash site Wednesday.

“We still don’t know much beyond the bare information on the flight, and there should be no speculation on the cause of the crash,” she said at a briefing in Berlin, adding that the crash will be investigated thoroughly.

President Barack Obama also offered condolences to victims and their families during his speech with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the Associated Press reported.

Obama described the accident as a “terrible airplane crash” and mentioned that children and infants were among those lives lost, according to the Associated Press.