Obama: Germanwings Plane Crash 'Particularly Heartbreaking'

Obama: Germanwings Plane Crash 'Particularly Heartbreaking'

President Barack Obama spoke about the plane crash that occurred in the French Alps on Tuesday, saying the crash is "particularly heartbreaking" because many of the plane's 144 passengers were young.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends in Europe, especially the people of Germany and Spain," Obama said ahead of a joint press conference with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan at the White House.

"It’s particularly heartbreaking because it apparently includes the loss of so many children," Obama added.

Ghani also gave his condolences to the people of Germany and Spain over the plane crash.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said a helicopter that was able to reach the crash site confirmed that there were no survivors. In addition to the 144 passengers -- 16 of whom were high school students -- two pilots and four flight attendants were on board the Airbus A320 plane, operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline.

HuffPost has more on the crash:

A plane carrying 150 people crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf in Germany. No one is believed to have survived the crash.

The Airbus A320 plane, operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline, went into rapid decline and lost radar contact with air traffic control about an hour after take-off at 10 a.m. local time, the airline said.

Germanwings said the plane started losing altitude one minute after it reached cruising height, and continued to descend for eight minutes before the crash.

The plane crashed in a remote area of the French Alps, about 65 miles north of the riviera town of Nice.

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