THE FRENCH ALPS CRASH: No survivors expected

A passenger jet carrying 150 people crashed Tuesday in the French Alps as it flew from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, authorities said..

Various sources reporting: The crash site was at Meolans-Revels, near the popular ski resort of Pra Loup, according to Eric Ciotti, the head of the regional council in southeast France...

There are also reports that the Germanwings Airbus A320 sent out a distress signal prior to the crash.. There is no information that a distress signal was sent. As a matter of fact, with a descent that lasted for 8 minutes, it was strange that no calls for help were made.. A long search and rescue operation has now begun, as the crash site is in an extremely mountainous region..

The CEO of the airline said that there were, in all, 152 people on board.  That number includes two babies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that "we don't know much about the flight and the crash yet. And we don't know the cause."

And more, the AP reporting:

The owner of a campground near the crash site, Pierre Polizzi, said he heard the plane making curious noises shortly before it crashed.

"At 11.30, I heard a series of loud noises in the air. There are often fighter jets flying over, so I thought it sounded just like that. I looked outside, but I couldn't see any fighter planes," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "The noise I heard was long - like 8 seconds - as if the plane was going more slowly than a military plane. There was another long noise after about 30 seconds."