French prosecutor: Co-pilot of doomed flight sought to ‘destroy the plane’
French prosecutor: Co-pilot of doomed flight sought to ‘destroy the plane’
(35 minutes later)
DÜSSELDORF, Germany — A French prosecutor said Thursday that the co-pilot of the doomed Germanwing flight appeared to want to “destroy the plane,” in a stunning twist to the investigation that shifted attention to a possible suicide dive that killed all 150 people aboard.
DÜSSELDORF, Germany — A French prosecutor said Thursday that the co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight appeared to want to “destroy the plane,” adding a stunning twist as the investigation shifted to a possible suicide dive that killed all 150 people aboard.
The statement came after reports that the recovered cockpit voice recorder indicated the pilot was locked out of the cockpit before the A320 slammed into the French Alps on Tuesday.
The statement came after reports that the recovered cockpit voice recorder indicated the pilot was locked out of the cockpit before the A320 slammed into the French Alps on Tuesday after an eight-minute descent.
The French prosecutor said flight recorder showed the co-pilot — identified in media reports as Andreas Lubitz — did not say a word once the captain left the cockpit, the Associated Press reported.
The Marseille-based prosecutor, Brice Robin, said the flight recorder showed the co-pilot — identified as Andreas Lubitz — did not say a word once the captain left the cockpit, the Associated Press reported.
“It was absolute silence in the cockpit,” the prosecutor was quoted as saying.
“It was absolute silence in the cockpit,” Robin said, despite reports that the audio had the sounds of someone — apparently the pilot — banging on the door.
The New York Times quoted an unidentified investigator Thursday as saying the audio depicts someone knocking with increasing urgency — and force — on the cockpit door. The Times quoted the source as saying: “And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer.”
Robin said the co-pilot had no known links to suspected terrorist groups, but noted the investigation remained wide open.
Lufthansa would only say that the plane’s co-pilot joined Greenwings in September 2013, directly after training, and had flown 630 hours. The captain of the plane had more than 6,000 hours of flying time and had been a Germanwings pilot since May 2014, having previously flown for Lufthansa and Condor, Lufthansa said, according to the AP.
“People who commit suicide usually do so alone . . . I don’t call it a suicide,” he said.
An Airbus training video shows that the cockpit door of the doomed A320 plane has safeguards in case one pilot becomes incapacitated inside, while the other remains outside, or if both pilots inside were to lose consciousness.
The New York Times quoted an unidentified investigator Thursday as saying the cockpit audio depicts someone knocking with increasing urgency — and force — on the cockpit door.
The Times quoted the source as saying: “And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer.”
[A look inside the A320]
Lufthansa, the parent company of the budget carrier Germanwings, said the co-pilot joined Germanwings in September 2013, directly after training, and had flown 630 hours.
The captain of the plane had more than 6,000 hours of flying time and had been a Germanwings pilot since May 2014, having previously flown for Lufthansa and Condor, Lufthansa said, according to the AP.
A spokesman for Germanwings’ owner Lufthansa said: “We have no information from the authorities that confirms this report and we are seeking more information. We will not take part in speculation on the causes of the crash.”
An Airbus training video shows that the cockpit door of the doomed A320 plane has safeguards in case one pilot becomes incapacitated inside while the other remains outside, or if both pilots inside were to lose consciousness. It is unclear whether the co-pilot could have disabled the fail-safe systems or otherwise blocked the cockpit.
To get into the cockpit, one normally needs to request access and is visible via a camera feed or through a peephole.
To get into the cockpit, one normally needs to request access and is visible via a camera feed or through a peephole.
If there is no response, a member of the flight crew can tap in an emergency code, however, again requesting access. If there is still no response, the door opens automatically.
If there is no response, a member of the flight crew can tap in an emergency code. If there is still no response, the door opens automatically.
If a person has been denied access, the door remains locked for five minutes, according to the training video.
If a person has been denied access, the door remains locked for five minutes, according to the training video.
The leaders of France, Germany and Spain all traveled to an Alpine pasture near the crash site Wednesday, which is now being used as a base for experts seeking to unravel why the German Airbus A320 abruptly dropped from its flight path with 150 people aboard. No survivors are expected from the pulverized aircraft.
Among the dead — 144 passengers and six crew — were three Americans, the State Department said. The other victims of the crash were mainly from Germany and Spain on the flight between the two countries.
The three European leaders, walking side by side, were briefed on the grim recovery efforts in the snow-bound French mountains and the struggle to learn what went wrong in Tuesday’s disaster. The flight, en route from Spain to Germany, was carrying 144 passengers and six crew members.
The State Department said three Americans were presumed dead, including Yvonne Selke and daughter Emily Selke, both from Nokesville, Va. The third American was not identified. The other victims of the crash were mainly from Germany and Spain.
Hours earlier, one of the flight recorders — or black boxes — was recovered in a damaged state amid the wide debris field. The A320, operated by the budget carrier Germanwings, slammed into a frozen ridge near the southern French town of Seynes-les-Alpes.
Remi Jouty, director of the French aviation investigative agency, said the audio included sounds and voices. He said it was too early to draw any conclusions from the recorder.
French President François Hollande, meanwhile, said the case for the second black box, the flight data recorder, had been found but not its contents, according to the AP.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told France’s RTL radio that all theories about what might have caused the crash must be explored but that a terrorist attack was not the most likely scenario.
[The plane’s final moments, minute by minute ]
[The plane’s final moments, minute by minute ]
Bundled against strong winds, Hollande thanked the teams leading the efforts to reach the crash site by helicopter and by foot. Hollande was accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
“The site is a picture of horror. The grief of the families and friends is immeasurable,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after being flown over the crash scene Wednesday along a frozen ridge in southern France. “We must now stand together. We are united in our grief.”
Meanwhile, the human toll from the crash came clearer. Those lost included two babies, two opera singers, a pair of Iranian journalists, an Australian mother and her adult son vacationing together, and 16 German 10th-graders and their teachers returning from an exchange trip.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that two U.S. citizens were aboard the flight, but she did not give their names or other details. Raymond Selke confirmed to The Washington Post that his wife and daughter were killed in the crash.
“We are in contact with family members and we extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the 150 people on board,” Psaki said in a statement.
She said U.S. officials were reviewing records to check whether other Americans were on the flight as the recovery for bodies began.
“The site is a picture of horror. The grief of the families and friends is immeasurable,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after being flown over the crash scene. “We must now stand together. We are united in our grief.”
The flight by Germanwings, the low-cost arm of the German carrier Lufthansa, had left Barcelona en route to Düsseldorf nearly 30 minutes late for reasons that remained unexplained. It traveled on a normal flight path before suddenly shifting into a steep descent moments after reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.
Within eight minutes, the plane had lurched down to 6,000 feet before falling off French radar screens at 10:53 a.m. local time
The pilots, French officials said, had not signaled air traffic control immediately before or during their sudden descent. The plane then crashed into rugged mountain terrain near the French ski resort of Prads-Haute-Bleon, where rescue workers and officials described a tableau of pulverized devastation.
[How safe is the A320?]
Debris seemed “so small and shiny they appear like patches of snow on the mountainside,” said Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for France’s Interior Ministry, after flying over the site.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told the German public TV network ARD that Tuesday was the “blackest day in our company’s history.”
German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schäfer said the full breakdown on the passengers’ nationalities was still being compiled, but it was estimated that half were German citizens. Passengers from Spain accounted for dozens of others.
The disaster put a new focus on the A320, a workhorse of the skies that has now been at the center of a dozen fatal accidents since 1988.
Aerial photos showed debris scattered across a five-acre expanse of frigid outcroppings. At least 10 coroners from Marseille traveled to the town of Seyne-les-Alpes to receive the bodies of victims.
The Airbus A320 enjoys a track record as one of the safest jets in the skies. For every 1 million takeoffs, the A320 fleet has about 0.14 fatal accidents, according to a Boeing study that analyzed five decades of air disasters. That puts the A320 on par with the Boeing 777 as one of the most reliable commercial planes.
Yet the crash Tuesday follows a number of high-profile A320 crashes, including the loss in December of an AirAsia jet in the Java Sea that killed 162 passengers and crew members during severe thunderstorms. Weather, however, was reported to have been clear and calm in the vicinity of the flight Tuesday.
Responding to German media speculation that a computer glitch could have forced the plane into a steep dive, airline officials said they thought that had not caused the crash and that the A320’s computer systems were fully updated.
Asked whether the airline would ground its A320s, Winkelmann said the planes have a “fabulous service record.”
He said the aircraft lost Tuesday flew its first flight in 1990 and was purchased by Lufthansa in 1991. It was transferred to Germanwings last year and had flown 583,000 hours across 46,700 flights.
That makes it one of the older A320s but still within the average age of planes in service. Its most recent routine maintenance check, the company said, took place Monday in Düsseldorf, with the last full inspection of the aircraft being performed in the summer of 2013.
The flight’s captain had more than 10 years of experience with Lufthansa and Germanwings and had logged more than 6,000 flight hours, said the CEO of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann.
Yet aspects of the crash baffled experts.
The plane’s descent was sudden, but it still took eight minutes. Some experts wondered why no distress signal was sent during that period. Others countered that no mayday signal would have been likely if the pilots were busy managing a catastrophic error.
More surprising for some was that the plane ran into trouble midflight.
“The plane was cruising at 38,000 feet — planes don’t crash in cruise,” said Anthony Davis, a London-based aviation specialist. “They crash in takeoff or landing or they have engine failure, but it’s very unusual anything should happen at that altitude.
“The plane was cruising at 38,000 feet — planes don’t crash in cruise,” said Anthony Davis, a London-based aviation specialist. “They crash in takeoff or landing or they have engine failure, but it’s very unusual anything should happen at that altitude.
A full passenger list had yet to be released, but Winkelmann said 67 of the passengers appeared to be German nationals. The German Opera on the Rhine said one of its baritones, Oleg Bryjak, was on the flight. Germany, though, was gripped with the story of a group of 16 10th-graders and two teachers from Joseph König High School in Haltern, Germany, who were on the plane. Britain announced Wednesday three of its nationals were aboard the aircraft
On Wednesday, the leaders of France, Germany and Spain visited the alpine meadow that has become the staging ground for the recovery efforts.
The German students had been on a one-week language exchange trip in Spain. A news broadcast by ARD showed groups of students standing in the schoolyard, looking distraught and lighting candles.
The French prosecutor’s statement raised parallels with the rare cases of apparently intentional crashes of passenger planes.
“These events are so terrible that we haven’t processed them yet,” the school’s principal, Ulrich Wessel, told journalists in Haltern, urging them to respect the students’ privacy.
In 1990, an Egypt Air plane went into a steep plunge after taking off from New York bound for Cairo, crashing into the Atlantic and killing all 217 people aboard. Investigators concluded that a mechanical malfunction was highly unlikely.
European officials said that at least 45 passengers were Spanish nationals, one was Belgian and an unknown number were Turkish.
In 1994, the pilot on a Royal Air Maroc flight appeared to intentionally slam the plane into a Moroccan mountainside. All 44 people on board were killed.
Murphy reported from Washington.
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Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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