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A German airliner crashed near a ski resort in the French Alps yesterday, killing all 150 people on board, in the worst plane disaster in mainland France in four decades.

France’s junior transport minister said there were “no survivors” from the crash of the Germanwings Airbus A320, a low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, in a remote part of the Alps that is extremely difficult to access.

The crew of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps yesterday did not send a distress signal, civil aviation authorities said.

“The crew didn’t send a Mayday. It was air traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress because there was no contact with the crew of the plane,” the source said.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would go today to the region where the plane crashed.

She said her foreign and transport ministers, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Alexander Dobrindt, were heading to the area, in a mountain range known as “Les Trois Eveches,” yesterday. “I myself will travel there tomorrow to get an impression and speak with the local authorities,” she told reporters in Berlin.

French President Francois Hollande said the plane crashed in an area very difficult to access and rescuers would not be able to reach the site for several hours.

“I want to express all our solidarity to the families affected by this tragedy,” Hollande said.

The plane was travelling from the Spanish coastal city of Barcelona to the German city of Duesseldorf when it went down in the ski resort area of Barcelonnette.

A witness who was skiing near the crash site told a French television channel he “heard an enormous noise” around the time of the disaster.

A French police helicopter dispatched to the site of the crash reported spotting debris in a mountain range known as “Les Trois Eveches,” which reaches 1,400 metres in altitude.

The government said “major rescue efforts” had been mobilised, but accessing the remote region would present severe challenges.

“The zone is snow-bound and inaccessible to vehicles, but could be overflown by helicopters,” said Vidalies.

Germanwings, the low-cost airline owned by German flag carrier Lufthansa, said that none of its aircraft has ever been involved in a crash prior to yesterday’s loss. “We’ve never had a total loss of aircraft in the company’s history until now,” a company spokeswoman said. Germanwings said there were 144 passengers and six crew on the aircraft.

Germanwings is the low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa and is currently being expanded by the parent company to handle most of its domestic and European flights, taking off and landing at airports other than Lufthansa’s two main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

With its trademark yellow and purple colors, it originally started life as part of Eurowings, but became a separate company in 2002.

Lufthansa fully acquired the Cologne-based subsidiary in 2009.

Its fleet comprises Airbus A320-200 and A319-100 jets, according to the Lufthansa website.

In 2012, it emerged that there had been a serious incident involving one of Germanwings’ aircraft at the end of 2010, when pilots were badly affected by fumes and complained of a burning smell in the cockpit as the plane approached Cologne airport. – AFP