Airbus A320 carrying 142 passengers crashes in Southern France

An Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in southern France on Tuesday en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, police and aviation officials said. [caption id=“attachment_2170899” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] The local La Provence newspaper said the Airbus A320 was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, citing aviation officials French president Francis Hollande said no survivors are expected in the Airbus crash. “Conditions of the accident are not yet clear but lead us to believe there will be no survivors,” said Hollande. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he understood between 142 and 150 people were on board and feared dead. “The cause is at present unknown,” he told reporters. 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. Lufthansa’s Germanwings unit said it was as yet unable to verify reports of the crash. The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to online database airfleets.net Media reports said Flight 4U9525 climbed to 38,000 feet before before it started to descend and lost signal at 6,800 feet. Agencies