A commercial Germanwings Airbus crashed in a remote region of the French Alps on Tuesday morning, possibly killing all 150 people on board, French officials said.
Airbus A320 was en route to Deusseldorf, Germany, from Barcelona when it crashed in the snow-covered Alps near the town of Digne, French President Francois Hollande said according to ABC News. "No survivors" are expected, the president said.
Officials warned that search and recovery efforts will likely be delayed, as there are very few trails leading to the crash site in the area's Meolans-Revels commune that's surrounded by mountains, according to The New York Times.
Germanwings issued a statement saying the Airbus left Barcelona shortly before 10 a.m. carrying 144 passengers and six crew members. The plane sent a distress signal at 10:45 a.m., right before the crash, French Interior Ministry officials told The NY Times. An investigation into the cause is underway.
"I want to express my solidarity to the family of the victims. We do not yet know the identities of the victims. It is a mourning we have to go through because it is a tragedy that has happened on our soil," Hollande said according to ABC News.
Spanish King Felipe IV, who was in France on Tuesday, said the passengers were of Turkish, Spanish and German nationalities, according to the station.
Lufthansa, the owner of Germanwings and Germany's largest airline, darkened its logo on social media.
"If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors," Carsten Spohr, the airline's CEO, said.
