On Tuesday morning, Germanwings Flight 9525, en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, slammed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard. As if this could possibly get more horrific, word came this morning from French prosecutors that the plane’s co-pilot willfully crashed the plane.
Brice Robin, the Marseille-based prosecutor handling the investigation, told reporters that based on a review of the flight data recorder, first officer Andreas Lubitz locked the captain–since identified as Patrick Sondenheimer– out of the cockpit before abruptly dropping the plane well below its assigned altitude of 38,000 feet. Robin said that Lubitz turned a dial on the center of the Airbus A320’s instrument panel which would have allowed the plane to drop as low as 100 feet; the plane crashed at an altitude of 6,000 feet. The button Lubitz used was one that has to be “deliberately” turned–making it obvious that the plane could not have descended accidentally.
Lubitz began the descent at 10:31 am local time. Over the next 10 minutes, Sondenheimer made numerous attempts to get back into the cockpit. He identified himself and even banged on the door several times. However, Lubitz had locked the door from within the cockpit, so there was no way for Sondenheimer to override it from the cabin–meaning that Lubitz chose not to unlock the door. Lubitz and did not respond to alerts from air traffic controllers in Marseille. He remained impassive even when an altitude warning sounded in the cockpit. In the moments before impact, passengers can be heard screaming. Robin concluded that Lubitz intended to “destroy the aircraft.”
The New York Times had reported yesterday that one of the pilots had been locked out of the cockpit–something that would be unthinkable on an American flight. FAA regulations require all American airlines to have two members of the flight crew at all times. In contrast, European regulations make it possible for only one member of the crew to be in the cockpit. That didn’t sit well with The Times’ editorial board. In a scathing editorial that will run in tomorrow’s paper, it called for European regulators to follow the FAA’s lead and require two people in the cockpit as “a sensible step” to protect passengers.
Nonetheless, the news that the plane had been deliberately flown into the mountain hit officials with Germanwings’ parent company, Lufthansa, with all the subtlety of a pile driver. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said that there was no sign that Lubitz was capable of something like this. He passed all of his medical and psychological tests “with flying colors,” and was “100 percent flightworthy.” Investigators are already poring over Lubitz’ apartment and background.
While this may look and smell like a murder-suicide to American eyes at this point, Robin isn’t ready to call this a murder-suicide yet. He did, however, say that it was “a legitimate question to ask” at this stage. The other obvious question–did anyone miss possible signs of trouble? However, it’s a safe bet we’ll know the answers to these and other questions sooner than later. After all, it’s been only 48 hours since the crash–which is really no time at all in a crash investigation.
