Jetstar and Tigerair were warned several months ago that the type of Airbus plane which crashed into the French Alps could be prone to going into deadly dives.

According to a report by The Australian, global airlines were told in December that if the Airbus plane’s sensors malfunctioned, the A320 could go into an uncontrolled plunge.

Jetstar Australia has 53 A320s in operation while Tigerair has 10.

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The emergency directive warning came after a Lufthansa A320 dropped 4,000 feet while flying over Spain in November last year.

According to the report, Airbus told airlines they were redesigning the sensor involved, and it would need to be replaced.

A320 pilots told The Australian it was rare the plane’s two sensors would freeze at the same time, and said the problem could be easily rectified by pilots.

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One-hundred-and-fifty people were killed on Tuesday when a Germanwings flight en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed into the French Alps.

The site of the Germanwings crash in France. Photo: AAP

The plane’s cockpit audio recorder has been recovered, but investigators said it would take several days to analyse the data.

French air crash investigation agency BEA chief Remi Jouty said at this stage they did not have “the slightest explanation or interpretation” as to what caused the crash.

What we know about the Germanwings crash so far

The victims

Germanwings says the plane was carrying 150 people: six crew and 144 passengers from around 15 countries.

There were at least 72 Germans on board. Another 51 of the victims were Spanish, according to Madrid.

Victims from Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Mexico, Netherlands, the United States and Venezuela have also been reported by the airline or national governments.

Recovering the bodies will be a lengthy and difficult process due to the difficult terrain.

The aircraft

The plane was a medium-haul Airbus A320 which entered service in 1991. At first operated by German flag carrier Lufthansa it then passed to its low-cost unit Germanwings.

The plane was one of the oldest A320s still in service having carried out 46,700 flights and 58,300 flight hours. According to several experts, at the age of 24, the plane was coming to the end of its life but was not obsolete, if it had been correctly maintained.

Germanwings said the jet underwent a thorough check in 2013.

Search teams at the site of the crash. Photo: Getty

The airline

Germanwings was created by the company Eurowings in 2002 before joining the Lufthansa fold on January 1, 2009. The flag carrier holds 100 per cent of the low-cost airline.

It flies to 130 destinations and had 78 aircraft in late October.

The pilot 

The pilot had more than 10 years of experience and had logged more than 6,000 flight hours, according to Lufthansa.

The flight

The plane was flying at 11,400 metres when at 10:31 am it started to descend without the go-ahead from air traffic controllers and without entering into contact or responding to efforts to contact it.

Air traffic control declared that the plane was in distress at 10:35 am. The crew did not send out a mayday distress signal.

The plane crashed at 1,500 metres altitude in a remote and rugged mountain area. It smashed into thousands of pieces with debris scattered over nearly four hectares.

– with AAP