Airbus A320 crash: aerial views of French Alps where plane went down
Aerial views of Seyne-Les-Alpes, the area of south-east France where a Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf
By Telegraph Video, video source France 24
2:13PM GMT 24 Mar 2015
As many as 150 people are feared deadafter a passenger plane crashed in the French Alps after sending out a distress signal.
Many of those on board the Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings are thought to be German, with more than 40 Spaniards also likely to have caught the flight which left Barcelona this morning, bound for Düsseldorf.
France's president Francois Hollandewarned that no survivors were expected, as French ministers made their way to the crash site.
An aerial view of Seyne-Les-Alpes, where the plane is believed to have crashed (France 24)
Search-and-rescue teams have been struggling to get to the remote, snow-covered region near the town of Digne where the plane went down.
"The mountains here are not very high, they are still covered with snow, but the problem is gaining access to these areas, which are quite well protected and preserved," said Valentin Doyen, a journalist speaking to the television news channel France 24 from near the crash site. Pierre-Henry Brandet, the French Interior Ministry spokesman, told BFM television that he expected "an extremely long and extremely difficult" search-and-rescue operation because of the area's remoteness