Prosecutor: Co-pilot appeared to want to ‘destroy the plane’
PARIS (ABC) — The co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crash in the French Alps this week appeared to want to “destroy the plane,” Brice Robin, Public Prosecutor of Marseille, said today.
Robin also confirmed reports about the pilot being heard on the voice recorder asking co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, a German citizen, to take over the controls, with a chair heard being moved and door heard closing.
The co-pilot was in control, Robin said, and the accelerated descent was made manually.
The pilot can be heard knocking on the door and asking over the speaker to enter the cockpit, but there was no response from the co-pilot, Robin said.
The co-pilot can be heard breathing until the moment of impact, he added, so officials believe he was alive until the crash.
Air traffic control can also be heard calling, with no response from the cockpit.
Robin said Lubitz had no reason to lock the pilot out of the cabin, no reason not to respond to air traffic control and no reason to disable the plane’s ability to maintain contact with other plans in the area.
Toward the end of the descent, investigators can hear “violent” banging on door as the pilot tries to get in, Robin said.
Co-pilot Lubitz had 630 hours of flight experience and had started working in 2013, an airline spokeswoman had said earlier.
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