MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Julie Bishop told reporters that Australia will send a consular official to southern France to cooperate with the French authorities on the A320 recovery effort.
"I don't think it gets any easier announcing the death of Australian citizens in a tragedy overseas," Bishop told reporters in Canberra, as quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday.
Germanwings Airbus A320, carrying 144 passengers and six crew members, was heading from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it crashed in the French Alps earlier on Tuesday.
According to French President Francois Hollande, most of the people on board A320 were German, Spanish and Turkish nationals.
France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety has launched an investigation into the crash, the bureau's spokesperson told Sputnik on Tuesday, saying that it was too early to give any detailed information concerning the accident.
