72 Germans, 35 Spanish among victims of crashed plane

BERLIN - Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said at a press conference on Wednesday that 72 Germans and 35 Spanish were among the victims on board the Germanwings Airbus 320 that crashed on Tuesday in southern France.

Passengers on board came from a dozen nations, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday.

"The nationalities that have been confirmed are mainly Germans and Spanish. But according to information that have been given me, there are nationalities that are also confirmed of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Morocco, Mexico and the Netherlands," precised the minister on BFMTV.

At least three British nationals died in the disaster, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Wednesday.

An Airbus A320 of German budget airline Germanwings with 150 people on board crashed Tuesday in southern France en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Duesseldorf at 11:35 a. m. local time (1035 GMT), but started to descend one minute after reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet at 10:45 a.m. (0945 GMT).

The aircraft was delivered to Lufthansa from the Airbus production line in 1991 and transferred to Germanwings in 2014.