The co-pilot who deliberately crashed the Germanwings Airbus in the French Alps had practised his actions on an earlier flight on the same plane that day, an official accident report has said.
In the fatal crash, Andreas Lubitz (27) locked his captain out of the cockpit and put the Airbus A320 into a continual descent, with the plane, en route to Dusseldorf from Barcelona, crashing into a mountain with the loss of all 150 people on board.
In an interim report released today, French air accident bureau the BEA said Lubitz repeatedly set the Airbus into a descent then brought it back up again on an earlier flight on the same A320 jet from Dusseldorf to Barcelona on the morning of March 24th.
The report said the other pilot appeared to have left the cockpit during that earlier flight as well.
The BEA said cockpit data showed Lubitz put the earlier flight into descent mode five times in a four-and-a-half-minute period. A chart released by the BEA showed the plane did not descend sharply during this period, suggesting that passengers and crew might not have noticed any change. It would be highly unusual for a pilot to repeatedly set a plane for such a low altitude for no apparent reason. The BEA report did not analyse why Lubitz repeatedly tried to descend the plane.
The BEA said it is continuing to look at the “systemic failings that may have led to this accident or similar events”.
Cockpit door security was strengthened on passenger planes after the 9/11 attacks in the US. Evidence has shown that the captain in the Germanwings disaster tried to break down the cockpit door after being locked out.
There have been various reports about Lubitz’s mental state and his fitness to fly. Today, the BEA said its main focus was on “the current balance between medical confidentiality and flight safety” and the “compromises” made on security after 9/11, notably on cockpit-door locking systems.
The report only outlines interim findings, and BEA said it is continuing to look at the “systemic failings that may have led to this accident or similar events”.
The investigators said their main focus is on “the current balance between medical confidentiality and flight safety” and the “compromises” made on security after the September 11 attacks in the US, notably on cockpit door locking systems.
Lufthansa spokesman Helmut Tolksdorf said the airline has not yet had time to analyse the new details released today and plans no immediate comment. Lufthansa is the parent company of Germanwings. French prosecutors are conducting a separate criminal investigation into the crash.
Agencies