Did Co-pilot Crash Plane Intentionally?

Details of the Airbus A320’s final moments reveal that co-pilot of the Germanwings plane intentionally crashed the jet.

10:44 27 March 2015

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin has released the details of the Airbus A320’s final moments at a news conference. It has emerged that the co-pilot, who was a German national and who had never been flagged as a terrorist, appeared to have intentionally sent the jet into its doomed descent. 

 

Based on the gathered information, there was a “normal” conversation between the pilot and co-pilot for the first 20 minutes of the flight, which was bound for Dusseldorf in Germany. The pilot is then heard asking the co-pilot, who has been identified as 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, to take over. 

 

Lubitz hen used the flight monitoring system to start the descent without saying a word and all that could be heard was his breathing. Mr Robin said: 

 

"It wasn't the breath of somebody who was struggling. He didn't say a single word. Total silence."

 

The pilot is then heard pounding on the door until the final minutes as alarms sounded. Finally the sound of an impact is heard. The 144 passengers who died on the flight only realised what was happening in the last moments. 

 

Mr Robin said: "We only hear screams at the very end. Death was instant. It hit the mountain at 700km (430mph) an hour."