Plane Crash: 144 Passengers and 6 Crew Presumed Dead In The Germanwings Airbus A320 Plane Crash

About 144 passengers and six crew were today presumed dead after the Airbus A320 crashed in a remote region of the French Alps en route from Spain to Germany. 

Two babies and 16 German school children are believed to be among those killed.

Earlier reports quoted aviation sources in France as saying the pilots issued a Mayday distress signal and requested an emergency descent minutes before it hit the ground.

However, civil aviation authorities later denied that air traffic controllers received any such call.

'It was air traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress because there was no contact with the crew of the plane,' a source told AFP. 

Germanwings chief executive Thomas Winkelmann said the aircraft began descending at 10.45am, just a minute after reaching its cruising height of 38,000ft. 

Germanwings said it was thought that 63 of the passengers on board were Germans, while reports from Spain suggest that around 45 Spaniards may have been on the flight. 

Debris from the jet, operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline, has been found scattered over a wide area near Barcelonnette in an inhospitable region of the Alps.

Witnesses have described hearing an explosion 'like the sound of dynamite' then seeing fighter jets fly past, suggesting the passenger plane had been under military escort.  

Grieving families have been gathering at Dusseldorf airport in Germany, where the jet was due to land, to await news of the rescue and recovery operation.

French president Francois Hollande said he did not expect there to be any survivors.  

He said: 'It's a loss, a tragedy which has happened on our soil. 

'I am seeking information about homes in the area it came down. It's difficult place to access. In the meantime solidarity must prevail.' 

He said he believes most of the passengers were German, Spanish and Turkish. 

 Photo credit: Dailymail