Evidence Shows Co-Pilot to Blame
Paris (AP) – The co-pilot of the Germanwings 9525 Airbus A320 flight, which flew into the mountainside in the southern French Alps on Tuesday at over 435 miles per hour and killing all 150 on board, did so intentionally. Brice Robin, the Marseille Prosecutor in the case, stated that the commander of the flight had left the cockpit in order to use the lavatory, and upon return was unable to regain access to the controls. “The intention,” of the co-pilot, said Brice, was “to destroy the plane.”
It was determined through recording and data retrieved from the planes black box, that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, sent the plane into a rapid descent, and eventually, the deaths of everyone aboard the plane, including himself. Information from the black box shows that as the last minutes of the doomed flight began, and the plane started to descend, there was polite knocking, and then frantic pounding on the door to the cockpit, while alarms were sounding, but nothing was said by the co-pilot. Brice stated that there was, “absolute silence in the cockpit.”
In Lubitz’s hometown of Motabaur, Germany, those who knew him said that Lubitz, who was in his late twenties, had never shown signs of depression, and that last fall he had renewed his glider pilot’s license. A member of the glider club that Lubitz belonged to, Peter Ruecker, stated that he “was happy he had a job with Germanwings,” and that “he was doing well.”
Lubitz had obtained a glider’s license as a teen, and he eventually became a pilot trainee after finishing a hard German prep school. Ruecker, who had watched Lubitz learn to fly said that Lubitz had “gave off a good feeling.” Lufthansa, the owner of the Germanwings franchise, said that Lubitz had joined Germanwings in September of 2013, and had 630 hours of flight time prior to that.
When asked if Andreas Lubitz may have had ties to terrorism, Brice responded, “A terrorist? Absolutely not”
