Independent:
Germanwings say they are themselves unsure whether the distress call was issued by the plane’s crew or air traffic controllers and have no information on why the aircraft apparently started to descend.
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Germanwings holds live press conference
Airline Germanwings is now holding a live press conference on the crash.
It has been confirmed that two babies were among the 150 people on board.
The plane fell into a “deep descent” which lasted eight minutes.
The captain was a pilot who had been flying with Germanwings and Lufthansa for 10 years.
The plane was in for routine maintenance yesteay.
Reuters:
Germanwings says believes 67 Germans were among crash victims, that number could change.
Independent:
Eye-witnesses of today’s plane crash in the French Alps spoke of seeing the aircraft skim the mountain tops before it crashed far from any human habitation.
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Initial numbers suggest 67 German passengers were on board, although that has not been verified. There were also believed to be more than 40 Spaniards.
Mirror:
The CEO of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelman, is speaking at the press conference.
He is speaking slowly and his voice is trembling - he’s clearly very emotional.
He says the Germanwings plane was checked by Lufthansa engineers yesterday.
Mr Winkelman says he hopes to find out “as soon as possible” what caused the crash.
Guardian:
Germanwings is giving a press conference. Two babies were on board, the company spokesman says says.
The aeroplane left Barcelona at 10.01am and the destination was Dusseldorf. There were 144 passengers, on board, two babies and six crew members.
At 10.47am it left its travel and cruising altitude ... and entered into a descent stage. This stage lasted for a total of eight minutes. The contact between the aeroplane and the French radar (air traffic control) broke off at 10.53 ... The plane then crashed.