German Airliner Crashed in Southern France [Live Upates]

150 passengers are feared dead.

An Airbus A320 from Lufthansa budget airline Germanwings has crashed over southern France. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls confirmed the airline crash and said that the aircraft was carrying up to 150 people who are feared dead. France has dispatched teams to the crash site, which is according to the latest information in the alps between Nice and Marseille.

The Germanwings flight 4U9525 took off in Barcelona, Spain at 10am and was scheduled to arrive in Dusseldorf, Germany at noon.

Details of the crash are just starting to surface as rescue teams arrive. There is no cause of the crash reported yet. It could be anything from technical defect to terror act.

FlightRada24 tweeted that the Germanwings 4U9525 was descending at a rate of about 3,000 to 4,000 feet per minute, which is a standard for an airport approach. Did the pilots try an emergency landing?

Updates:
(Updates in Eastern Time)

9:45am

Germanwings flight crew did not send emergency signal as initially reported say AFP. Germanwings press-conference starts in 15 minutes.

8:30am

Germanwings will hold a press-conference at 10am ET in Cologne, Germany. There are still no official details from the crash site.

8:05am

The crash site is close to a town called Digne.

8:00am 

Crash site is close to skiing slopes. Daily Mirror reporter Andy Lines tweeted that skiers report about smoke sightings. He also said that bodies of victims are being taken to an emergency morgue set up at a gymnasium in village of Seyne-Les-Alpes.

7:45am

142 passengers and 6 crew members have been on board of flight 4U9525. Helicopters of French Police have spotted the plane in the alps.

7:40am

Germanwings refers to media reports right now and has no further details. The airline company has setup a page that is supposed to contain regular updates, but the site is unresponsive.

The crash happened near a town called Prads-Haute-Bléone (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). According to French FranceTVInfo a resident of the town describes the crash site as difficult to access. It is in a valley and only helicopters can get their. There are not roads for cars.

7:30am

German media reports that the A320 was 25 year old. News outlets in Germany are still at a loss of information of what happened. There is no footage yet from the crash site. France officials said that debris has been spotted.