German Plane Goes Down in French Alps
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news, searchers are in the French Alps trying to reach the remote scene of a German airlines crash. Germanwings is a low-cost airline owned by Lufthansa. Its flight from Barcelona in Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany, it went down earlier this morning in the Alps.</s>BOLDUAN: At least 150 people were onboard. All of them feared dead. Families now in several European nations await word about the fate of their loved ones. French authorities are telling Reuters news agency that it could take days to recover all of the victims because of the rugged terrain that they are up against. Karl Penhaul is in Barcelona where the flight took off; and Jim Bittermann is in Paris. Jim, let's begin with you. What's the latest on the search? What are you hearing from French authorities?</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The French interior minister just arrived in the area in the last hour and he took a flight over the crash area and one of the people onboard his helicopter was a French deputy, a member of parliament. He described the crash scene as covering about four acres of area very mountainous terrain. He said it would be very difficult for the searchers to get in there. They'll have to go in by foot. He said that there was no sign of life at the scene at all and he said that the debris was scattered everywhere. He said it was just small pieces of debris. It's going to be also complicated for the searchers because of the weather down there. There's a front moving through in the next few hours and the temperatures, which are right now below freezing, expected to drop even further. There's rain falling. Could turn into snow and that is going to also complicate things and could cover the remains of the people who were killed in the crash as well as for the investigators who would be looking for black boxes it could make the search for the black boxes more difficult as they try to work in this rather hostile sort of terrain.</s>BERMAN: Of course, that search, so important to those who have family members onboard that flight. We understand most of the passengers were German, Spanish, Turks also onboard. Let's go to Barcelona and the airport there. Karl Penhaul, I imagine there are many family members there asking a lot of questions hoping for any new information.</s>KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. A crisis center has been set up now at Terminal 2 at Barcelona's international airport and as minutes and hours go by, I have seen groups of family members arrive there. The ones I have seen have been Spanish-speaking relatives. They've been hugging one another. Many of them crying as they go through a set of automatic barriers to a private area where that crisis center has been set up. Now, in addition to aviation authorities and airline representatives, there are also medics and psychologists in that crisis center as well. They'll be looking after the family members as more information has been passed to them. As we know right now from Germanwings, the airline company part of Lufthansa, they say that they believe at least 67 Germans were onboard. We're also hearing from city hall officials in the German town of Hulton that 16 students from that town have been booked on this flight. We don't know whether they boarded the flight but there is a chance that 16 exchange students from Germany may have boarded that flight as well. We don't know anything about the other passengers in terms of how many other nationalities were onboard. Bear in mind that Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city. Some come for weekend breaks. Barcelona is also an access point to the beach area of Spain. A lot of northern Europeans head here to get some winter sun. But as time goes on, we hope, from the airline authorities, to get more information about the breakdown of the passengers, nationalities and really what they've been doing in this area of Spain -- John?</s>BERMAN: 150 souls onboard. Karl Penhaul, Jim Bittermann, thanks so much.</s>BOLDUAN: There's interesting information coming out right there from Jim Bittermann, John. We want to point out quick first that there are ways you can help when tragedy strikes. Logon to CNN.com/impact. And also right now, there's a hotline for families of passengers to call for information. But I do want to draw the attention to our viewers just one more time to some of the information that Jim Bittermann was getting from French authorities. He said French authorities were able to fly over the scene and what they saw according to one person is the crash site covered about four acres. Jim saying the debris was just everywhere. There's no sign of life from what they can see and that because of the difficulty terrain as we've been discussing, investigators, searchers, will have to go in foot complicated by the fact that difficult weather is moving into the area as we speak. It's already at freezing temperatures which is going to complicate things only further. Just want to make sure we bring all of the latest to our viewers. There's a lot of this that's fluid and a lot of information coming in from all of our reporters on the ground right now -- John?</s>BERMAN: No doubt. There's a mountain guide on the scene there near the crash site who says he heard the plane go down. He describes the sound he heard and he also described the incredibly difficult conditions Kate was just talking about. No way to get there via ground. You need helicopters you're look at right now. We'll hear from that mountain guide next.