A German commercial jet with about 150 people aboard crashed in the rugged terrain of French Alps Tuesday.
On board the Germanwings plane were a group of 16 tenth-graders along with their two teachers, the German North Rhine-Westphalia state Education Ministry said.
Ministry spokeswoman Barbara Loecherbach told The Associated Press that they had already confirmed that the school group was from a high school in the city of Haltern, northeast of Duesseldorf.
ABC News reports that according to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, 10 helicopters as well as a military plane have been dispersed and mobilized in the site where the plane had crashed en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
Cazeneuve said at a news conference that he is keeping the possibility that some of the 150 people aboard the plane could have survived.
However, in the developments of the rescue operation, none of the passengers survived the crash. President of the general council of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Gilbert Sauvan said that "everything is pulverized" in the site. He added that the largest pieces of debris are only the size of a small car. As of now, he said, no one can access the site from the ground. Nonetheless, the helicopters are making rounds at the area to get information and 500 firefighters on move.
Moreover, there was no indication that the plane crash was a result or an act of terrorism, spokeswoman for the US National Security Council Bernadette Meehan said.
The White House says American officials have been in contact with French, German, and Spanish officials to offer assistance in the said incident.