Copilot sped up before crash
The data recorder supplies more details about Germanwings flight’s last minutes.
PARIS — The copilot of the Germanwings plane that plowed into a mountain, killing all 150 people on board, repeatedly increased the aircraft’s speed as it descended, French air accident investigators said Friday.
Information from the aircraft’s flight data recorder showed that, having locked the captain out of the flight deck, Andreas Lubitz, 27, used the automatic pilot to put the Airbus A320 into a fatal descent to just 100 feet as it flew over the southern Alps in France, according to a statement from the BEA, the French air accident investigation agency.
As the doomed flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany, made its rapid but controlled drop, the copilot deliberately modified the autopilot settings to accelerate the plane, the statement said.
Information from the flight data recorder confirmed information from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, which was found hours after the crash on March 24. Authorities said that data indicated that Lubitz deliberately destroyed the aircraft, killing all 144 passengers and six crew members.
The BEA said the flight data recorder was sent to investigators Thursday evening and that experts were continuing to examine it.
“The initial readout shows that the pilot present in the cockpit used the autopilot to put the airplane into a descent towards an altitude of 100 feet, then, on several occasions during the descent, the pilot modified the autopilot setting to increase the speed of the airplane in descent,” the statement said.
Authorities said the cockpit voice recorder from Flight 9525 showed that Lubitz locked pilot Patrick Sondenheimer out of the flight deck after the captain left to use the bathroom, and refused to let him back in despite increasingly desperate pleas and attempts to break down the cockpit door.
The aircraft was destroyed as it hit a mountain at 435 mph. Investigators said sounds from the cockpit recorder suggested that Lubitz was “breathing normally” and thus conscious until impact. This has been confirmed by the second recorder, they said.
Since the crash, German investigators have searched Lubitz’s home, where they said they discovered a large amount of medication and a torn-up doctor’s note showing he had been excused from work on the day of the crash. Police also said they found that Lubitz had searched online for information about suicide methods and cockpit door security.
Lubitz was treated for serious depression in 2009 and was still consulting doctors, officials said. The German newspaper Bild said that Lubitz was also seeking treatment for trauma and vision problems after a car accident at the end of last year.