The "black box" from the plane that crashed on Tuesday in the French Alps has been found by searchers.

The recovery of the "black box" would provide important clues about what caused the Dusseldorf-bound aircraft to crash after suddenly losing altitude. The crash killed all 150 people aboard.

Talking to reporters, French Interior Ministry Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed the flight data recorder was recovered by the searchers in a debris field where "everything is pulverized."

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence lawmaker Gilbert Sauvan said the debris is spread over an area. "The largest pieces of debris are the size of a small car," he said.

"A black box that we found a few hours after the crash will immediately be examined to help the investigation move forward quickly," Cazeneuve told French media.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the first helicopter carrying searchers managed to land near the mile-square crash site in the Alpes de Haute Provence region in the evening but it failed to find any survivors.

It is expected that the flight data recorder and the other black box, the cockpit voice recorder, would play an important role in helping investigators determine the circumstances behind the crash of the Airbus 320.

French President Francois Hollande called the horrific crash "a tragedy that has occurred on our land."

The ill-fated plane was operated by German carrier Lufthansa's budget airline, Germanwings. The plane was 44 minutes into its flight from Barcelona when it dropped from a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet to around 6,800 feet over the town of Barcelonnette.

"We will do everything possible the clarify the causes of the accident as quickly as possible," Germanwings official Thomas Winkelmann said at a Tuesday news conference hours after the crash. "We want to know what happened. That is our obligation."