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 lufthansa.

debrings has been found at an altitude of about 2,000 meters. it's tough to get to and rescue crews aren't expected to arrive for sometime yet. 144 passengers and six crew were on board the airbus a320. the french presidents says there are no survivors. let's take a look at an animation that has been create by the website air journey. you can see the flight as it takes off from barcelona. it gains altitude to 38,000 feet, but as it crosses the french coast, it begins to drop dramatically taking just a few minutes to fall to 6,800 feet in the french alps.

>> translator: our thoughts are with the families of those who are suffering this terrible loss today. we are offering every means to find out what happened and also the bodies of the victims. it happened in a particularly difficult zone to get to. to rescue services will not be able to give us results for a few more hours. i want all of our services to mobilize. >> let's take you live to colgne. >> translator: [ speaking german ] >> all right. so that was the ceo of germanwings there. we'll try to come back to him,

if we can, when we get some translation, but obviously that press conference is in german. let's go back to david who is in the town of dean a little over 70 kilometers from the crash site. david tell us what more you have been hearing there about the recovery effort and what the emergency teams are doing at the crash site. >> reporter: i have been driving towards the scene and crossing long vehicles and long convoys of emergency vehicles firemen and police and they are obviously getting towards the scene. they only have a few hours of daylight left but we understand that it is in a very inaccessible position. it's above the snow line, and helicopters are being used to reach the scene, so if there is a fight against the dying of the lights at the moment and there's bad weather coming in so there's real urgency here.

>> all right. david let's go back to that press conference in colgne where the ceo of germanwings is talking about the crash. we have translation. let's hear what he has to say. >> translator: it reached its height designated height. after one minute left this height, and started going over vertical line. now this vertical -- eight minutes lasted this downed flight. the contact of the airplane to the french radar at 10:50.

it broke the contact. the airplane -- it has a crash the airplane. the airplane had -- had 144 passengers and six crew members on board. it's -- it's airbus a 320 type [ inaudible ] was the number. the airplane was supplied from -- to from lou than sa.

the latest routine check of the airplane yesterday in dugsel dorff, the but lufthansa engineers, later regular big check of the airplane was according to the plan -- was [ inaudible ] in some 2014 according to the logs. the captain of the airplane is a captain has ten years -- is deployed for lufthansa and germanwings and about -- more 6,000 has flown on this model 6,000 hours of experience on this airplane.

team of the germanwings at the time was this dusseldorf so that to the relatives of the -- to inform the -- please have understooding our guests, our colleagues and -- which had to inform before we provided the name of the list. a team of lufthansa airbus germanwings, and [ inaudible ] is on its way now to the place of the accident so that there will be an investigation of the accident. to contribute as much as

possible to find as soon as possible why our airbus had this accident. the most important now is our deepest concern sympathy to the guests, to relatives of the crew of the passengers about the loss of their relatives. our thoughts our prayers, are exclusively with the victims. at the same time i joined with the authorities to do everything possible to clarify the cause of this accident as soon as possible, and fully and also

the corresponding french and german authorities are there. we will be supporting according to the best of our knowledge and expertise the whole effort. [ inaudible ] because the emergency call was made? said they after one minute it lost its designated height. [ inaudible ] all of the information which should of

course access what [ inaudible ] aware. it's a very [ inaudible ] let me clarify the precise course as soon as possible. the emergency call we have no exact information. we will have to have [ inaudible ] statements. there was an emergency call made or not, the second -- concerning this downed flight nothing can be said. it has to be also coordinated and explored. we don't have any further facts. so that was the first -- to bers

bers -- barcelona was the first trip? >> there was nothing conspicuous conspicuous -- the whole history of the airplane is exactly, precisely documented marks, we cannot speculate at this stage. it happened just shortly. first of all we have to take care of the relatives, and then we should [ inaudible ] with all of the experts, with the authorities, with the airbus, we should clarify what exactly happened. are there questions?

[ inaudible ] was going to say who exactly was -- what passengers were on board the plane from which country, from from . . . it became clear now that one plane has computer problems at the end of the year there was a similar -- there was something reported one plane would have computer problems. >> we assume now there were germans. we cannot say the exact number of the germans, nationals.

this computer problem which you have said, we can say that this problem was solved but there is the newest version of technology there, so i can say . . . >> i think it seepsable -- it's acceptable because the maintenance standards were very high, and as long as you have your maintenance schedule in place, and follow all of the

procedures in place, there is absolutely no issue with the age of an airplane. >> translator: this investigation, how long will it last? we'll do everything possible. i cannot give any time scale. we'll do it with the authorities -- with all of the experts, as soon as possible or as professionally as possible. we want to know what exactly happened. it's our obligation towards the relatives or the victims. and to the office of those who worked for germanwings. passengers and . . . was it the oldest airplane?

airbus 320, we deployed them over the last years. there were many within this group, and from many years ago they left the factory, the plant. will it have any consequence for your further [ inaudible ]? it's sad. we were proud about our quality -- we were proud about our security precautions of everything. we have our standards of course. what concerns the investigation of the accident whatever is necessary. what can contribute to the -- to the clarification being implemented, of course.

so . . . were there any dutch people on board in --? i cannot say whether there were any. i cannot give a [ inaudible ] of -- there were the passport control in spain, but we'll clarify all of this as soon as possible. there's some assumptions we have to -- to check -- to clarify things. >> do you know if there are any chinese passengers on board? >> there are no chinese

passengers as far as we know today. >> okay. thank you. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] are you planning to take better control now, measures to investigate their soundness at this time. like other air carriers have done in the past they grounded a whole fleet. are you going to be doing that? >> absolutely. we have -- right now, we have three hours after the incident, and we have to investigate properly with all of the professionals what went wrong. the moment we know what went wrong, of course there will be measurements immediately in place to have an incident like this never happen again. >> reporter: but will you ground the rest of the a320s? that is the question. >> yeah i think when --

>> translator: it's early to -- we're speculating now. it will be a successful plane within [ inaudible ] in the world. it's a good record. there's a very high security record for this type. i should clarify as soon as possible but properly. it is suggested there were eight minutes until the airplane was down. i cannot reply. there are many reasons why it happened like this. it is wild speculations.

it's difficult to make any statement. what -- what was the cause -- [ inaudible ] downed flight. i cannot at this stage answer these questions. i have to clarify one of the black boxes have been told [ inaudible ] authorities, french spanish and german authorities as soon as possible. i don't know why -- why it started it down -- down flight. we can't really speculate. now a few hours after the accident we don't have further, further findings.

the nationalities of the victims without any doubt will -- as soon as we know them in detail and the nationalities of the passengers, we'll know them and provide them whenever they are known. i don't know. so many thousands of these airplanes are in operation. as you [ inaudible ] we cannot

give information before we inform all of the relatives. with the next opportunity we'll provide information. first of all we rely on the data which arrives from the data in france and all other sources. we don't take into consideration, first of all there should be real assessment of the radar data for france.

is the area now accessible or the crash site . . . our colleagues at lufthansa they'll be -- will the use of the helicopters -- they will fly to the area to clarify the causes. can i get information on the latest minutes of the flight?

we'll provide you the times when one it was in barcelona, 10:01. so it was at the height of 8,000 feet. regular height was achieved and then it was either plane left its height . . . there was no -- communication concern of this downed -- downed flight. so they -- then we don't have any -- we don't have any further information. we'll do everything possible

now. we go to the crisis headquarters, and as soon as some clear information is available, we'll inform you. probably in the following hours, as soon as we have some safer checked credible information. >> you have been watching live pictures of a press conference in colgone, where the ceo of germanwings was talking about the last few minutes of the flight. he was talking about the altitude changes. he confirmed there were 144 passengers and six crew on board. he said as far as he knew the latest maintenance check had been carried out in accordance with the maintenance schedule. he said the captain of the

aircraft had 6,000 hours of experience on the airbus a320. he said a team from luf than sa airbus and germanwings were on their way to the crash site. and they would work with french authorities to find the cause of the crash. let's go back now to berlin and talk to dominic kane. dominic, the ceo of germanwings talking about teams from lufthansa airlines. we're getting a bigger picture of the response of the germans now? >> yes, angela merkel spoke confirming that the transport minister and the foreign minister are on the way to the

crash site and she herself will go to the crash site tomorrow. it emerged that apparently two babies were amongst the 144 people on board the the -- passengers on board the aircraft which came down. and here in germany, some media are reporting the number of germans on board the plane were something like 67. neither germany nor lufthansa are reporting that or giving any senseover the numbers. but that's what is being reported by german television. if that is the case that explains why strong the response has been from the government all expressing their regret about this their condolences to those involved in this incident. one gesture they made was to change the color of their social media delivery to black as a

mark of respect, which goes with the fact that this is the first such fatal incident that this german airlines has suffered. the aircraft that it was operating, the a320 has a very good safety record and the safety record of germanwings was exemplariry until today. the airplane costs about $100 million and is used by airlines around the world. usually by no-frills airlines which specialize in using this sort of work horse aircraft and here in germany, there are many bases regionally that germanwings uses. so the sirousness of the incident can be seen by the level of the reaction both from the chaser will the president

and her ministers. >> reporter: we have heard from many officials now, when do you think they will tell us about the number of german fatalities on the craft? because the spanish have come out and said look we think there are 45. the german media has been speculating, but there's no official number yet about the number of german casualties. >> i think one of the things that the ceo is trying to intimate to here is they wanted to get in touch with all of the relatives of the victims who lost their lives. so they could hear the terrible news from the airline rather than some other source. and i think that might well explain why there might seem like a delay. although you heard him say that the crash only happened a few hours ago, and he didn't want to

go into the causes of the incident, until it was very clear what the causes of the incident were. and he said he would tell the world what he knew as soon as he knew it. so i think this period of time where we know that 45 spaniards very involved. and the french president spoke of germans and turks being on board the plane, i think soon we will here soon about what the composition of the nationalities on board the plane were. but i'm sure that germanwings would want to be the ones who inform the relatives of the victims first. >> okay. dominic thank you very much indeed. let's just remind you if you are just joining us here of the sequence of events. germanwings flight 9525 crashed in the southern french alps this morning. debris has been found at the

altitude of 2,000 kilometers. there are 45 spanish nationals on board. we're still waiting to here about the number of other nationals on board. stay with al jazeera. thank you for watching. we'll be back at the top of the hour with no breaking news about this plane crash in the south of france. stay with al jazeera. thanks for watching. >> i think it's incredibly >> i think it's incredibly important not to important not to sexualize the sexualize the female characters in female characters in entertainments that are made for very little kids. entertainments that are made for there is not good reason why you will. very little kids. there is not good reason why you will. >> the >> the actor found the institute actor found the institute that rep