The Germanwings flight was travelling from the Spanish coastal city of Barcelona to the German city of Dusseldorf when it crashed in a remote mountainous area near a ski resort.
There's evidence the plane made a rapid descent but no distress call from the crew of the Airbus A320 which crashed near the town of Barcelonnette about 100 kilometres north of the French Riviera city of Nice.
Germanwings is the low-cost subsidiary of Germany's main carrier Lufthansa.
Lufthansa's Heike Birlenbach says the airline considers the crash to be an accident.
"For the time being we say it's an accident. There's nothing more that we can say right now, everything else would be speculation."
The weather was reported to be good and the United States says it does NOT suspect a terrorist attack.
This aircraft first went into service back in 1991 making it one of the oldest A320s currently operating.
150 people were on board, including six crew.
All are dead, and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says there were Australians involved.
"Sadly, I can confirm that there were two Australian citizens on board: a mother and her adult son from Victoria."
Opera singer Maria Radner also perished along with fellow performer Oleg Bryjak.
The pair had performed a season of Richard Wagner's Siegfried in Barcelona which ended on Monday.
Sixteen German school students returning from an exchange trip have also died.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is among world leaders offering condolences.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of all those killed but particularly with the loved ones of the two Australians who have lost their lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, our consular officials are doing what they can for the families."
Germanwings says the aircraft began to make a rapid descent one minute after reaching normal cruising altitude.
Eight minutes later it crashed into the mountain.
One of the black box flight data recorders has been recovered and the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve hopes it will provide some answers.
"This black box that we found just a few hours after the crash, which will immediately be made use of, will allow the ongoing judicial investigation to advance quickly. Otherwise, arrangements were made tonight to secure the crash site so that the deployment of this course of action can be facilitated and that tomorrow, the judicial investigation -- with the arrival of judicial police specialists, of the forensic doctors, particularly anthropologists -- can permit the investigation to move forward in the best conditions."
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