and surprise us. >> don't try this at home. >> "techknow" where technology meets humanity. monday, 6:30 eastern only on al jazeera america. >> welcome to the news hour. from al jazeera in dough he has these are the stories. >> an airbus flight went down in france. >> it went down on our soil. >> with yemen on the drink of civil war the parties will hold talks in qatar.

>> india's supreme court strikes down a law allowing police to arrest people for comments on line. >> we begin with that breaking news out of france where an airbus a320 has crashed with 148 people onboard. french president hollande said there are no survivors. you can see flight 9525 taking off from barcelona reaching heights of 38,000 feet as it reaches marseille it drops to

6800 feet. front president hollande has made a statement about the crash. >> our thoughts are with the families of those suffering this terrible lass today. we are offering every way and means possible to try and find out what happened in this accident and to find the wreckage and also the bodies of the victims. the accident happened in a particularly difficult zone to get to, rescue services will not really be able to give us results for a few more hours. i want our different services to mobilize. >> president hollande said there were passengers from germany and turkey onboard but didn't think there were any french citizens on the plane. the spanish government said 45 onboard were from spain. >> i've cleared my work agenda, given instructions to my cabinet to create a crisis management group. a team is on its way to the crash it a. i've spoken to german chancellor angela merkel. we exchanged words about dealing with this situation.

i'm injury upset about this sad situation. we will do whatever we can to help and support the families of the victims. >> airbus commented about the incident on twitter saying all efforts are now going towards assessing the situation. we'll provide further information as soon as veil. our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic event. >> let's get more now from paris and talk to our correspondent jacky rowland. we've seen french president hollande and other officials spring into action. what more are you hearing about the crash? >> obviously there are statements from president hollande, prime minister and other officials expressing their dismay at the crash and by chance, the spanish king happens to be in paris today on an official visit. we saw him standing on the steps of the palace, adding his voice to those expressing sorrow about the crash and expressing

solidarity with the victims and their families. also we've heard more details about the emergency operations underway in the french alps. the french president and french transport minister pointed out it is not realistic to expect any survivors. 144 passengers, six crew members, all presumed killed in the accident. because of the nature of the terrain in that remote part of the alps, very difficult territory, some places can only be reached by experienced climbers or a helicopter. emergency services have been mobilized, 214 firefighters, three squadrons have traveled to the nearby town -- to help respond

to the accident. >> the french interior minute at her bernard cazenueve is on his way to the crash site and the government is activate ago crisis cell. >> this crisis cell includes top politicians, notably the president himself and the interior minister, the prime minister, also top military officials, as well, because bearing in mind the difficult access to the site in the mountains, it's quite likely that military assets, like helicopters could be called upon but also heads of police, fire service ambulance and the last time we saw this kind of crisis cell come into operation was just over two months ago in paris at the time of those shooting attacks so again a very urgent situation for the french emergency services to respond to, and as i said quite possibly, the military, as well.

>> juke key as you've been telling us, the plane crashed in the high alps in france. for those of us who don't know this area, we understand it's very mountainous tell us more about the area and its topography. >> it's extremely remote. the village of barcelonnette is accessible by mountain climbers or by helicopter. this is not a place that you can readily just drive up to. around the area there are a number of peaks ski resorts this is in the high alps. at this time of year, snow covered would be a peak time really for the tourists to be skiing there. the fact that it is so renote and the terrain is difficult makes such a rescue mission far more difficult but really, emergency services will be concentrating on collecting bodies a very grim task, since there is no hope of survivors and also collecting and studying

data to get details of what may have caused the crash. there is the possibility that there could be victims on the ground. we don't know about that yet because at the moment, this operation is still in a very early stage. >> what about the issue of jurisdiction? even though the crash happened on french soil, it was a german plane flying from spain with many spanish nationals onboard the aircraft, though, was manufactured in france. where does the jurisdiction lie at this stage? >> the jurisdiction very much would lie with the french, because this is an accident that's happened on french soil. it's not exactly a -- it's a grim responsibility they have. certainly in terms of emergency response, this is very much in the heart of the french alps. we are looking at french emergency services, although it's not inconceivable that others could offer to participate in the course of the coming hours and days.

also in terms of investigation if there is going to be any kind of investigation theater potentially a criminal investigation, we do not yet know the cause on what caused the aircraft to start plunging steeply. we heard experts continuing to our oh coverage contributing to this breaking news who have commented the fact that the plane did start to descend so rapidly indicates that some kind of catastrophic incident happened onboard. as the elements of information comes through it could potentially fall to the french to carry out some kind of criminal investigation as to the events that have led to this plane crash which has in all likelihood and reality cost the lives of 150 people onboard that airbus. >> all right, iraqi roland in paris, just updating us on what she knows about the crash of

that germanwings plate in the high alps in southern france. we'll come back to you as the day progresses. germanwings said we're sorry to confirm the accident on the flight from oh barcelona to düsseldorf in the french alps was an a320 aircraft. onboard were 150 individuals. we have contacted family members of passengers. germanwings and lufthansa are in dipsasness. that's a tweet from germanwings the subsidiary of lufthansa. germanwings, which is a subsidiary of lufthansa, the lufthansa c.e.o. has spoken out about the plane crash saying it's a dark day for his airline. he added my deepest sympathy goes to the family and friends

of our passenger and clue on flight 9525. >> joining us for more is dominic cain in berlin. bring us up to date an what you have been hearing in berlin. much of the information has been coming from french authorities because the crash happened in france. what more have they be saying in germany. >> a few updates to give you we expect the c.e.o. of germanwings to give a news conference within the hour. that will be from colon in western germany. we understand the chancellor angela merkel is going to speak about this incident within the next 25 minutes but her foreign minister has already spoken. i'll read a translation of what he says, where he he says effectively that the terrible news has just reached us that a plane from a german airline

crashed in southern france. we have immediately established a crisis response team that is investigating the details of that catastrophe. we are in close contact with the french authorities. obviously this is something which has provoked a response from the german government and angela merkel is going to be speaking about this in the next 25 minutes or so. it's worth making clear that germanwings has an excellent safety record. this is the first fatal incident involving one of its aircraft ever since its inception and it has or had until today around 80 aircraft, the majority of which were airbus products, so as youal included to early on, airbus has very serious concerns about this incident and will be seeking to establish what exactly caused the incident, caused the airliner to come down in the french alps and now that we know that around 45 spaniards

were aboard, we will wait to see how many germans were onboard. francois hollande has said there were germans aboard the aircraft and it seems fair to assume that angela merkel will give an update about how many german people were involved in this incident. clearly, from the point of view of lufthansa and from germanwings, this is a disaster, and something which will cause concern for them, for aircraft manufacturers around the world because the airliner concerned the a320, there are more than 6,000 variants in use around the world. they cost around $100 million and they're considered to be the work horse of short haul no frills airlines. germanwings has regional bases around germany which this destination, short haul destinations around the europe union. if there is an issue with the airliner, they will have to make

sure that the airliner is safe for them to operate all the other routes that they maintain around the europe union. >> how concerned will efficient there be about the fact that the aircraft made a rapid descent from 38,000 feet to 6800 feet in just a few short minutes? without going into the realms of speculation, there will be concern about how that happened. >> well, of course, there will be great concern about that, because until there is certainty about what exactly happened to that airliner, then it is natural for people to speculate about what might have happened and that will be of concern not just to germanwings, not just to lufthansa, but to all airlines that operate this particular aircraft and indeed, as i say to the manufacturer. it's difficult to see why a pilot of an airliner would want to descend that rapidly that quickly into what would on the

face of it a mountainous area be a dangerous maneuver to undertake. until the air accident investigators have got to the site and have been able to access the black box flight recorders, it would be dangerous, i think for us to go into too much detail about what might have caused this accident, but clearly that is something that the crisis teams from france, spain and germany will have as their top priority to work out what exactly has happened here, if as we now see from the french government, there is this certainty that nobody survived this unfortunate incident. >> what about the jurisdiction? we know that the crash happened on french soil, but it was a german plane flying from spain with many spanish nationals onboard the aircraft manufactured in france. what is germany's role in the investigation here and in terms of jurisdiction? >> so far as jurisdiction is

concerned, i can't improve upon what jacky rowland my correspondent in paris has already said, given the territorial nature of this incident inside eastern central france, the french authorities will be in the lead of the investigation. given the fact that the destination was german, it is reasonable to suppose that the german authorities will want to have a serious role in the investigation. it's not yet clear quite how many determine mans were onboard the aircraft, but again, it is reasonable to suppose that a great deal of germans were onboard. we understand something around the region of 45 spaniards were onboard. that leaves more than 100 other nationalities onboard. clearly, the combination of the fact that it was a german airline, it was flying to a german destination means that we can assume that the german foreign ministry will want to know what happened and establish a sense of how they can take this investigation on wards.

until we have certainty as to the cause it's difficult for us to speculate much further about what might have brought this airliner down. >> stay with us for a minute, won't you? i want to come back to you with a final question before we let you go. let's roll some pictures here from 75 kilometers where it happened. this is dean, where the operation, the search and rescue for recovery operation will be launched from. this is the airport at dean, live pictures coming in there at the dean airport where we believe the emergency services will use this airport as their springboard to get high up into the mountains to get to the crash site where this germanwings plane went down. live pictures coming from the airport. let's bring back dominic cain.

you were telling us it is surely set to raise concerns in germany, given lufthansa and germanwings exemplary safety record. >> yes indeed, that is something that will be paramount of importance to all that operate in germany given the safety record being exemplary this is the first fatal incident. condolences were given to the families of those involved in this incident. clearly his colleague angela merkel is going to want to go into more detail about this and the gem man government is going to be very keen to find out what

exactly happened in this incident that brought that plane down, on a journey which is routine for a short haul no frills airline. i'm sure when the c.e.o. of germanwings speaks to the media he will seek to allay fears concerns. we expect that to happen within the hour. >> just a final thought before you go. has there been a response in the media there to this crash or is it too early yet? >> >> i think it's a bit too early to go into that. certainly it is talked about as a disaster, they are referring to the fact that we expect this news conference from germanwings and they've gone into the sorts of coverage that weaver talked about, the history of

germanwings, the sort of plane that was flying, the conditions that pertained during the flight the course that was taken, whether there was deviation, but there hasn't been anything more of coverage you would expect from rolling news stations reporting on a disaster involving a german airline, an airline that was flying to a german destination. >> thank you. we will come back to you a little later in the program. >> now for those of you just joining us, a quick reminder, take a pause and bring you the facts of what we know so far. germanwings flight 9525 crashed in the southern french alps in the provence region. debris has been found at an at too old of 2,000 meters. it's tough to get to and rescue crews around expected to arrive at the crash site for sometime. the plane was en route from the

spanish city of barcelona to düsseldorf in germany when it went down. 144 passengers and six crew were onboard the airbus a320. the french president francois hollande has said there are no survivors. in the past hour, president hollande made a statement about the crash. >> our thoughts are with the families of those who are suffering this terrible loss today. we are offering every means and ways possible to try and find out what happened in this accident and to find the wreckage and also bodies of the victims. the accident happened in a particularly difficult zone to get to, so rescue services will not really be able to give us results for a few hours. i want all of our different services to mobilize. >> president hollande said there were passengers from germany and turkey onboard but didn't think there were french citizens onboard. the spanish government said 45 onboard were from spain.

>> i've cleared my work agenda, given instruction to say my cabinet to create a crisis management group. the team is on its way to the crash site. i've spoken to the german chancellor angela merkel. we exchanged words about dealing with the situation. i've spoken to the king. i'm injury upset about this sad situation. we will do everything we can to support the families of the victims. >> airbus has now commented saying all efforts of now going towards assessing the situation. we will provide further information as soon as it's available. our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic event. let's go to paris and get more from our correspondent, jacky rowland. are you getting more details about the emergency operation underway to get to the plane crash site, what more details are coming out about that? >> i've now left paris and am traveling south towards the area in which the accident happened.

the information that we're getting is that because of the remote nature of the location, in which the plane came down and because of the difficult mountainous terrain -- >> all right we seem to have lost jacki there for a second. let me talk you through the pictures live on our screen. these pictures are from dean, about 75 kilometers from the crash site. dean in the south of france. >> we think the rescue teams will use this to get to the wreckage. this is 75 kilometers from the crash site where we believe the recover services will use as a

launch site to get to the crash. we were talking to jacky rowland. she is heading there now to try to give us a bit more details in terms of what's happening with the recovery efforts down there but for the time being, we were talking to her and lost her there, but these are live pictures coming from dean airport. >> germanwings confirmed the details about the crash on twitter. they said we are sorry to confirm the 9525 accident. it's an a320 aircraft, onboard were 144 passengers and six crew members. we have connected a telephone hot line for family members of passengers. all employees of germanwings and lufthansa are in deep sadness. our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew. germanwings is a subsidiary of lufthansa, the lufthansa c.e.o.

that spoken out about the plane crash saying it's a dark day for his airline adding my deepest sympathy goes to family and friends of our passengers and crew. joining us for more on this story now is dominic cain. we've been speaking to you all day since the crash. much of the information we've been getting is from the french, because that's where the accident happened. what are the german authorities saying so far? >> the german foreign minister has been speaking to reporters and i'll read a translation of what he said to german press. he said effectively that the terrible news has just reached us that a plane from a german airline crashed in southern france. we have immediately established a crisis response team that is investigating the details of that catastrophe. we are in close contact with the french authorities. now, his colleague the german chance is expected to make a

statement to speak within the next 15-20 minutes and we know that the -- or we understand, rather, that the c.e.o. of germanwings is going to lead the press conference given by germanwings in about half an hour's time. we can expect a great deal more details from the german government and from the airline that operated this aircraft. the government has set up a response team and they are going to be very keen to find out quite exactly what happened here. we hope to find out more information about who exactly was onboard that plane. we know that the spanish authorities confirmed that 45 of the people onboard were spaniards, but we await to find out quite how many germans were

onboard. president francois hollande has said that he understands that germans and kurds were onboard but we don't have anymore detail about the exact com significance of the nationalities of people onboard the plane. that we wait to find out. >> stay with us. we're going to show our viewers some pictures here from barcelona airport which is of course the airport where the plane took off from, where germanwings flight 952 knife took off from this morning. these are the scenes earlier barcelona airport, the flight, short flight, which had taken off from barcelona and of course it crashed in the southern alps. we thought we had some pictures of some of the relatives who seemed obviously very upset. they were trying.

--crying. we do have the pictures now. be patient and stay with us. these are pictures of relatives at the airport in barcelona earlier, clearly distressed, clearly upset at news of the crash. the spanish deputy prime minister had said that 45 of the passengers onboard were spanish nationals. these are picture earlier from barcelona airport where that germanwings flight took off this morning. let's just go back to dominic cain. as you were saying earlier this low cost subsidiary germanwings is part of the wider lufthansa

group. it sets concerns in lufthansa and germanwings flight 9545 safety record. >> they have an exemplary safety record and operate many of these aircraft. on many different levels, there will be concern about the safety of the airlines, the safety of their aircraft and that's certainly something that the c.e.o. of germanwings will be looking to allay the fears of, making clear this is an isolated incident that with such previously exemplary safety record, his airline is reliable and safe. i'm sure those are the things that he will be lacking, points he will looking to make. it's worth pointing out that the air, the manufacturer of this airliner airbus, will be very concerned about what has happened, because there are so many a320s in operation around the world, more than 6,000 variance of the a320.

it's a plane that costs around $100 million and is seen as a work horse as the reliable work horse of air companies that operate no frills, short-haul transport so that people can get in europe at least from places like barcelona to frankfurt düsseldorf, germanwings flight 9545 operates regional hubs throughout germany which serve destinations around the europe union. the idea that one has come down could impact all their our routes. that's why the press conference that is come will be an opportunity for the c.e.o. to stress the safety of his aircraft. we expect a statement from angela merkel about the incident. we know her colleague the president of germany has expressed his condolences. he is on a trip to peru at the moment but taken timeout to

comment on the disaster. obviously, we've heard from president francois hollande of france who talked it being an air tragedy and saying that it impact upon spain france and germany. that gives you a sense of the european element an airliner flying from bourse to barcelona to düsseldorf. we wait to find out what nationalities the other onboard were. >> that does point to the issue of jurisdiction, doesn't it? as you say, it was a german plane flying from spoken, the aircraft manufactured in france. what about the issue of jurisdiction and what role will the germans play in the investigation? >> well, obviously the territorial elements of this disaster was french. it came down in the alpine

region, an air inside the alps. the french a authorities will take the lead in this investigation. we can be certain there will be a strong german component of this investigation because given the fact it was a german airline, that it was flying to a german destination. they will be very keen to take a key role in the investigation but of course, it must be led by the french, because territory it landed in their air space on their territory. the foreign minister is on his way to the disaster site. that gives you a sense of the importance of the german government place on this, but of course the french will take the lead. >> dominic, thank you within

we'll come back a bit later. let's cross now to the press conference in berlin, where we expect the german chancellor should be talking in a few minutes, anyway, angela merkel will come on to that podium and give that press conference about obviously this is a german plane, germanwings a low cost subsidiary of lufthansa. she and other german officials will be talking. expect angela merkel to talk. there she is now walking to the podium. let's listen in. >> ladies and gentlemen, we have horrible news from southern france, the crash of the german airplane is a shock that us in germany and in france and spanish people put us into deep mourning. we don't -- we don't know much about the data of their -- and

speculation on the cause of this -- the crash. everything should be thoroughly investigated today. i am concerned about the scale of this -- that this catastrophe has so many victims. my thoughts and my sympathy of the whole federal government is with the people who lost their lives, among them many compatriots, the suffering of their families, it's -- is huge. we'll do everything possible that the assistance and assistance is provided. what can be done in these hours in the previous hours with president hollande and also with the spanish prime minister over the phone. we have agreed that our

countries will help each other in any possible way to clarify the cause of this -- also to support the forces at the airport. we have created a crisis headquarters where all the efforts will be coordinated. i will go there tomorrow to create a picture for myself and to speak with local authorities. i want to say on this crash that the hour is -- will have this -- experience mourning, we will speak with the victims their relatives and their friends. thank you very much.

>> german chancellor angela merkel there short and brief sake the crash was a shock to the german nation, it was horrible news. she said she didn't know much about the cause of the crash and says it will be investigated, clearly staying away from speculation. she said her thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and she said they will work with spanish and french authorities and they will set up a crisis center where all german efforts will be coordinated through. let's go back to our correspondent in the german capitol in berlin, dominic cain. how important is it for the german chancellor to be seen leading here from the front in the wake of this terrible tragedy? >> well notice that she didn't go into details about the numbers of germans involved in this disaster, but clearly given that it's a german airline, very prestigious germ man airline with an exemplary safety record, she will want to reassure people just as the c.e.o. of the airline will want to that air travel is safe, that

in deed, germanwings is safe and that is something we can imagine that the c.e.o. of germanwings will say in his news conference coming in the next 25 minutes to half hour. for angela merkel, this is about expressing condolences and getting to the bottom of what exactly caused this airliner to crash in the alpine region of france. >> all right dominic contain in berlin, for the time being thank you. a couple of hours have elapsed since the crash. the plane made a rapid descent from 38,000 feet to 6,800 feet. in your assessment now what do you think may have happened to bring the plane down? >> well, simply we don't know. something evidently very

catastrophic happened onboard the aircraft, and that is the information that we wait to retrieve from the two black boxes, the data recorder, voice recorder, as well. but for those devices once they are recovered and assuming they're not too badly damaged will be dispatched to the french b.a.a. to lead that part of the investigation. they will be carefully taken apart, assessed. the information they contain the data from the aircraft itself and voice recordings, assuming they survived, will be

taken off whatever mechanical or electronic device they're contained on and then they will be carefully analyzed to assess what might or might not have happened. that's a painstaking process. it can take weeks if not months and we wait to see always. we wait to see until we get the information and that information is in controvertible. >> to remind our viewers the black boxes are not black are they, they are red or orange. one is the cockpit voice recorder. that will give us the last minutes of what was happening in the cockpit before the plane hit

the ground. >> yeah, precisely. it records all of the voice conversations that are going on in the cockpit and the voice communication between the pilots and ground, voice communication between the pilots and the co pilot, so we should see from that an image a picture of the final moments the flight materializing before our eyes, really. the other recorder is data recorder. that's a device which records all of the parameters of the aircraft, the engine parameters, for example, the control services where they might have been and other salient information retrieved from the flight onboard computers, so all

of that data can be retrieved. it can be manipulated it can be monitored, and suddenly, ultimately, we will get a resultant picture of sorts developing, which gives communication as to the cause. >> chris we do know that a distress call was sent out shortly after the plane took off. how significant is that going to be to the investigation given that as you say it seems like a catastrophic failure because of this rapid descent from 38,000 feet? >> it dependency very much on when that may day message was sent, of course, as to how much time it took for the aircraft to literally fall from the sky. that will give us indication at to the time period that managed

to elaps before the aircraft crashed into the french alps. one of the first things that the pilot in command would do is to sane distress message to ground control to alert them that the flight is in some degree of trouble and he may well be requiring some form of assistance, whatever assistance to be given. >> we need to very carefully stay away from the realms of speculation in terms of what may have brought this plane down. tell our viewers, talk to us about the airbus a320. it's a reliable work horse of

many airlines throughout the world, isn't it? >> yes, it is. the last time an a320 was involved was when when an a320 came down from we think was a weather incident. they have to be analyzed to determine that sequence. it is going to be pretty much the same as this, all of the information will have to be retrieved, contained and analyzed very carefully. >> let me get a final thought from you chris. will the authorities be looking at other causes of the crash

such as human intervention or security failures? they can't rule those out can they? >> no, they certainly can't rule them out and particularly not given the age that we live in at the moment, so every avenue is going to have to be investigated, where there were any threats to the flight. that is one area that investigators will look at, any unusual people onboard the flight anything unusual as far as the cargo is concerned. all of this information has to be carefully assessed, carefully followed up and then ultimately, we will get to a cause to this most tragic of accidents. >> all right chris yates aviation expert there in manchester england. no doubt we'll be coming back to you throughout the day for your

analysis. let's get a reminder of the main events so far. germanwings flight 9545 crashed in the southern french alps in the provence region. debris has been found at an altitude of 2,000 meters. it's tough to get to and rescue crews around expected to arrive for sometime at the crash site. the plane was en route from the spanish city of barcelona to düsseldorf in germany when it came down. 144 passengers and six crew were onboard. the french president francois hollande said there are no survivors. in the past half hour, french president francois hollande has made a statement about the crash. >> our thoughts are with the families of those who are suffering this terrible loss today. we are offering every means and ways possible to try and find out what happened in this accident and to find the

wreckage and bodies of the victims. the accident happened in a particularly difficult zone to get to so rescue services will not give us results for a few hours. i want all of our different services to mobilize. >> let's get more from our correspondent jacky rowland on a train bound for the crash site. jacki, bring us up to date now on anything you're hearing about the emergency operation. we understand emergency crews are heading to an airport called dean. what will they be doing? >> we are hearing information about the emergency operation because the crash site is remote up in the mountains it makes the whole search and rescue operation more complicated. 245 firefighters have been mobilized, being brought in from neighboring regions. the dean airport is in the main

town, certainly that seems to be an area where a lot of the emergency response is coordinated from. there is a town just 10 millimeters from the crash site and a local official there confirmed that the local high school has given over its -- >> all right apologies for that. we seem to have lost jacky rowland, who's on a train she's probably going through a tunnel or something. we're talking to jacky rowland heading on a train from paris to the crash site in the south of the country. jacki was saying that a town called dean, which is about 75 kilometers from the crash site will be used as a springboard for the emergency services. these are pictures which you're seeing on your screen of some of the emergency services, military and police helicopters in fields

surrounding dean, where they've been used for the recovery effort for the investigators and the emergency teams these are pictures taken from a little bit earlier. as far as -- yes these are pictures taken from earlier. we he did have live pictures from the airport in dean, which we understand will be -- there it is, the springboard for that operation. to get high up into the mountains, as juke key was saying, they have recovered wreckage from 2,000 meters. that's high up in the mountains and poses extreme challenges for the emergency services to get to. there will be snow, bad weather rain, et cetera to try to get to the crash site, but they have found some correctage we believe at 2,000 meters, so jacki at the homes is on her way to dean to get us an update on the recovery operation, which poses some big

challenges for the emergency services. what you're seeing at the moment are live pictures from the small airport in dean, which we understand is about 75 islam terse away, the nearest town, probably the nearest airport to the crash site, where the emergency services will use that as a pace, as a springboard to get higher up into the mountains. germanwings confirmed the details about the crash on twitter, saying we're sorry to confirm that 9525 on the flight from barcelona to düsseldorf over the french alps is an airbus aircraft. we are connected a telephone hot line for family members of passengers all employees of germanwings and lufthansa are in deep sadness our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers

and crew. germanwings as we've been telling you is a subsidiary of the german airline lufthansa. the lufthansa c.e.o. has spoken out saying it's a dark day for the airline. he added my deepest sympathy goes to the family and friends of our passengers and crew onboard 9525. we know angela merkel has spoken. tell us what she said about the crash and the involvement of the german authorities. >> within the last 15-20 minutes, she made a brief statement expressing her condolences to all involved in the incident and confirmed that her foreign minister and transport minister are en route to the crash site and that she herself will fly there tomorrow to see for herself quite exactly

what exactly happened to bring down the airliner as we now know in the dean air of the french alps. the germanwings and lufthansa have both expressed sorrow about what happened, because this air like that, germanwings has never had a fatal incident before. we are await ago news conference we expect to be from its c.e.o., which will be held in the western german city of colon in the next few minutes and clearly at that news conference, he will be looking to allay the concerns of passengers, potential passengers about the safety of his aircraft, about the safety of his airline and clearly also there will be a concern on the part of the manufacturers of this particular model of airbus craft, airbus, that there are so many a320s in existence, more than 6,000 hauling short-haul flights. they will be interested in hearing what will be said by the

c.e.o. of germanwings. angela merkel did not give a figure for the number of german citizens involved. we know the spanish have said 45 spanish were onboard. that leaves 105 people onboard whose nationalities are not yet clear. we know that the french president francois hollande has spoken about germans and turks on that board the aircraft, so we can expect much more detail about that from the german authorities in the hours to come. >> just take us through germanwings itself. of course many of us have heard about lufthansa the german national airline but we understand germanwings is a low cost subsidiary. talking us through the relationship and what it does in europe. >> germanwings is as you say lo cost airline. it has around 2,000 employees and about 80 different aircraft, which fly a european destination

space from regional bases around germany to destinations in spain, france, italy and all the sort of western european and central european destinations you would expect. they have an exemplary or had an exemplary safety record, so for lufthansa and for germanwings this incident is very grave indeed, because they operate so many of the aircraft, and any particular i am petments to this aircraft, the a320 would have serious repercussions for germanwings and lufthansa and of course to all the other airlines that operate this aircraft. >> all right dominic no doubt we will come back to you later in the program. let's go back to jacky rowland on the train heading to the crash site. we were talking to you earlier about what more you may have heard about the emergency operation.

what more can you tell us? >> i was just talking to you about the area close to the crash site, in particular, the small mountain town where a local high school has been taken over as part of the operation and a local official explaining how helicopters have been bringing in bodies from the surrounding area an both the football pitch and school have become a makeshift mortuary. it gives you an idea of just some of the difficult situations in which the emergency services are working as they search this area, which is scattered for a very wide distance around. >> talk to us about the area where the plane went down. we think of snow bound mountains, of skiing, but it

poses serious challenges for the recovery teams. we seem to have lost jacki again there. she was saying to us that interns of the recovery operation, there's a small town which is where this recovery center has been set up, a school turned over at a makeshift morgue and we understand some bodies have been brought back to the small town near the crash site. the picture you're seeing now are pictures of helicopters both police and paramilitary working with the recovery teams to bring down bodies from the crash site. president hollande said there were passengers from germany and turkey onboard but didn't think there were any french citizens onboard. the spanish government said 45 onboard were from spain. >> i've cleared my work agenda, given instructions to my cabinet to create a crisis management

group. the team is on its way to the crash site. i've spoken to the german chancellor angela merkel. we exchanged words about dealing with the sad situation. i've spoken with the king and leader of the opposition. there's not much more to say except i'm upset about this very sad situation. we will do whatever we can to help and support the families of the victims. >> we will talk about the weather conditions the recovery teams face. >> at the moment, you've just seen the snow line quite high, so they are not doing too badly. there was a center of low pressure over spain stirring storms around. the cloud base is high. the plane would have gone through cloud and come out again. you're going to find the cloud cover down to where the recovery effort is, it will bring rain.

the sooner you can get in the better, because the weather is getting worse. >> weather is a critical factor in this, isn't it? >> it is with the recovery, yes. conditions get worse the longer we wait. >> all right rob, thank you for that. for those of you just joining us, germanwings flight 9545 crashed in the southern french alps in the provence region. we know that debris has been found at a nearby village at an at too old of 2,000 meters. we understand it's tough to get to and rescue crews aren't expected to arrive there for sometime. the plane was en route from the spanish city of barcelona to düsseldorf in germany when it came down. went that 144 passengers and six crew were onboard the airbus a320 french president francois

hollande has said there are no survivors. in the past hour, french president francois hollande has made a statement about the crash. >> our thoughts of with the families who suffered the terrible loss today. we will find what happened to the accident and find the wreckage and bodies of the victim. the accident happened in a difficult zone. rescue you crews will not give reports for a few hours. >> germanwings confirmed the details about the crash on twitter. they said we're sorry to confirm the 4u9525 accidents en route to düsseldorf in the french french pals.

we have connected a hot line for family members of patterns. more details on the crash in the southern alps. stay with al jazeera.

an airbus a320 goes down in france with 150 people on board, the french president says there are no survivors. ♪ hello, i'm darren jordan with our continuing coverage here of the germanwings plane crash. let's just give you more details. the airbus crashed with 150 people on board it belonged to the budget airline germanwings, with which is a subsidiary owned by