The second black box belonging to Germanwings flight 4U 9525 confirms that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz acted deliberately, investigators say.
The French BEA crash investigation agency said Andreas Lubitz repeatedly accelerated the plane’s descent before crashing into the French Alps.
The second flight recorder from the plane was recovered on April 2.
All 150 people on board the flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf on March 24 were killed.
“A first reading shows that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to put the airplane on a descent towards an altitude of 100ft,” the BEA said in a statement on April 3.
“Then several times the pilot modified the automatic pilot settings to increase the speed of the airplane as it descended,” it added.
Earlier findings from the cockpit voice recorder suggested Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked the pilot out of the cockpit.
On April 2, German prosecutors said Andreas Lubitz had researched suicide methods and the security of cockpit doors on the internet the week before the crash.
[youtube sKkKE-Cr1Fk 650]
Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz sought treatment for vision problems that may have jeopardized his ability to continue working as a pilot, the New York Times reported.
Andreas Lubitz, 28, was flying Germanwings flight 4U 9525 that slammed into a mountain in the French Alps on March 24.
The revelation of the possible trouble with his eyes added a new element to the emerging portrait of Andreas Lubitz, who the authorities say was also being treated for psychological issues and had hidden aspects of his medical condition from Germanwings. Antidepressants have been found during a search of his apartment on March 26.
Photo AFP
It is not clear how severe Andreas Lubitz’s eye problems were or how they might have been related to his psychological condition.
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was alone in the cockpit of the Airbus A320 jetliner on the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, ignoring demands from Captain Patrick Sonderheimer to be let back in, when the plane crashed.
French prosecutor Brice Robin said cockpit voice recordings and other data about the flight have revealed that Andreas Lubitz deliberately guided the plane, with another 149 people on board, into the mountains.
[youtube 8v2T9R-Y9LM 650]
Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U 9525 that crashed in the French Alps on March 24, appeared to want to “destroy the plane”, officials said.
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, citing information from the “black box” voice recorder, said co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was alone in the cockpit.
He intentionally started a descent while the pilot was locked out.
Brice Robin said there was “absolute silence in the cockpit” as the pilot fought to re-enter it.
He said air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, but to no avail. Passengers could be heard screaming just before the crash, he added.
Details are emerging of Andreas Lubitz’s past – although his apparent motives for causing the crash remain a mystery.
Photo Twitter
Andreas Lubitz, 28, had undergone intensive training and “was 100% fit to fly without any caveats”, according to Carsten Spohr, the head of Lufthansa, the German carrier that owns Germanwings.
Carsten Spohr said Andreas Lubitz’s training had been interrupted briefly six years ago but was resumed after “the suitability of the candidate was re-established”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that Andreas Lubitz’s apparent actions had given the tragedy a “new, simply incomprehensible dimension”.
The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf hit a mountain, killing all 144 passengers and six crew, after an eight-minute descent.
“We hear the pilot ask the co-pilot to take control of the plane and we hear at the same time the sound of a seat moving backwards and the sound of a door closing,” Brice Robin told reporters.
He said the pilot, named in the German media as Patrick S, had probably gone to the toilet.
“At that moment, the co-pilot is controlling the plane by himself. While he is alone, the co-pilot presses the buttons of the flight monitoring system to put into action the descent of the aeroplane.
“He operated this button for a reason we don’t know yet, but it appears that the reason was to destroy this plane.”
Andreas Lubitz was alive until the final impact, the prosecutor said.
Brice Robin said “the most plausible interpretation” was that the co-pilot had deliberately barred the pilot from re-entering the cockpit.
He added that Andreas Lubitz was “not known by us” to have any links to extremism or terrorism.
Lufthansa has arranged two special flights for families and friends on March 26 – one from Barcelona and one from Duesseldorf – to Marseille, and both groups will travel on by road. Separately, some relatives who did not want to fly are travelling by bus from Barcelona.
The second “black box” – that records flight data – has still not been found.
[youtube wnIe3bvwJQA 650]
