Germanwings crash: co-pilot 'wanted to destroy the plane'
Andreas Lubitz took sole control of the Airbus 320 and "wanted to destroy the plane", French prosecutors say.
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THURSDAY 26 MARCH 2015
Brice Robin said the 28-year-old co-pilot - named Andreas Lubitz - was alone at the controls of the flight that slammed into an Alpine mountainside and "intentionally" sent the plane into the doomed descent.
The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf hit a mountain at 700 km/h on Tuesday after a rapid eight-minute descent he added. Mr Robin said passengers on the flight could be heard screaming just before the crash as the main pilot tried to re-open the door from the outside.
Death was instant. However Mr Robin was careful to state that at this stage there was no indication of a "terrorist attack".
'Black box revelations'
The information was pulled from the black box cockpit voice recorder. During the final minutes of the flight's descent, pounding could be heard on the door as alarms sounded, he said.
He said the co-pilot "voluntarily" refused to open the door, and his breathing was normal throughout the final minutes of the flight.
All the families have been informed of the details.
Lufthansa said the co-pilot - who had not yet been officially named - joined Germanwings in September 2013, directly after training, and had flown 630 hours. The captain had more than 6,000 hours of flying time and been a Germanwings pilot since May 2014.
In a press conference Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr described the event as "the most terrible in our company's history". "In a company like ours where we are so proud of our safety criteria this is even more of a shock for us," he said.
Meanwhile, Germanwings has responded on Twitter to the comments from the French prosecutor:
'He was happy and doing well'
Lubitz was from Montabaur, a town in the district seat of the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate. The city's mayor Gabriele Wieland said Lubitz lived with his parents in Montabaur and also had a residence in Dusseldorf, where the Germanwings flight was heading before it crashed.
Those who knew him said he showed no signs of depression when he was seen last year renewed his glider pilot's license. His Facebook profile has been taken down - but had included music and aviation as his hobbies.
"He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well," Peter Ruecker, who watched him learn to fly at the same glider club in which he trained, told Associated Press. "He gave off a good feeling." He described Lubitz as a "rather quiet" but friendly young man.
German security officials said Lubitz had "no indications of any kind of terrorist background". Lufthansa told them that regular security checks also turned up nothing untoward on him.
'The world responds'
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he was "shocked by the latest details provided by investigators". Rajoy said that once again he sends "an emotional embrace to the families" of those who died in Tuesday's crash in France.
