An Airbus A320 plane crashed on Tuesday in the southern French Alps, police and aviation officials said. Sources said the plane belonged to Germanwings, an affiliate of German airline Lufthansa, travelling between Barcelona and Dusseldorf. According to reports, 142 passengers and 6 crew members were on board the flight. No survivors are expected in the plane crash, French President Hollande said. "The cause is at present unknown," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. A spokesman for the DGAC aviation authority said the airplane crashed near the town of Barcelonnette about 100 km (65 miles) north of the French Riviera city of Nice.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who said debris from the plane had already been found, was heading to the scene. The crashed A320 was 24 years old and had been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991. Germanwings A320 D-AIPX is one of the oldest A320 with serial number 0147 and was delivered in Nov 1990. Flight #4U9525 was descending with a rate of about 3000-4000 feet per minute, which is quite standard for an airport approach... Flight #4U9525 initially climbed to 38,000 feet before before it started to descend and lost signal at 6,800 feet.

According to data provided by FlightRadar 24, the plane crashed from a height of about 38,000 ft in just about 12 minutes. At 9.29 local time, the plane was travelling at 463 KTS at 38,000 ft. The last reported time was 9.41 local time, at a height of 6800 ft travelling at 378 KTS.

By Premji