#Germanwings
Andreas Lubitz Germanwings flight 4U 9525 Co-Pilot | PHOTO:Reuters
After it became abundantly clear that Germanwings flight 4U 9525 en-route Duesseldorf from Barcelona was intentionally crashed by the co-pilot Andreas Günter Lubitz, focus has shifted on interrogating the motive behind unexpected event.Speculations on the mental health of Andreas Lubitz have remained key among the possible reasons why Andreas crashed the plane on the French Alps with 150 people on board;144 being passengers,four cabin crew and two more crew in the cockpit .But what exactly transpired?
The final 10 minutes of flight 4U 9525 |CREDIT:BBC
- 1. 09:30: Final contact with air traffic control.Pilot exits the cockpit.
- 2. 9:30:55: Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz manually changes autopilot from 38,000ft to 100ft.
- 3. 9:31: Aircraft begins acute descent with Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz at the controls.
- 4. 09:35: Air traffic controllers contact pilots to no avail.
- 5. 09:40:47:Last radar position of the plane is registered at 6,175ft, just 2,000ft above the mountains of the French Alps.
Pilot Denied Entry
Germanwings Flight 4U 9525| An A320 plane cited as one of the oldest in operation,is reported to have been in good condition.
Voices obtained from the Cockpit Voice Recorder(CVR) by detectives reveal that suggested that in the last 20 minutes the two pilots talked normally.It is then reported that the pilot excused himself and asked the co-pilot to take over.He then pulls his seat and closes the door as he walked out of the cockpit. The co-pilot would then lock the pilot out of the cockpit as he tried to regain access into the cockpit.According to BBC Radio,the pilot was heard knocking very hard of the door to the extent that he attempted to break the door to no avail.Finally,passengers could be heard yelling before the plane crashed on French Alps.According to initial investigation reports based on CVR evidence,Mr. Lubitz was reported to have been heard ”breathing normally” even as the plane crashed.
Supersonic Speed
Extreme Speed on descent |CREDIT BBC
The battery of detectives also revealed that a warning alarm went off warning the pilots to “pull up”.Experts in the aviation industry said the alarm is usually attributed to flying at extremely low altitudes.At this point however,the increasing pounding on the door by the pilot desperately to get back into the cockpit were literally ignored by the co-pilot.Flightradar24 described the extreme speed of 3-4,000ft per minute at which Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 was descending at as the recommended standard for an airport approach.
Suicidal Tendencies
In what turned out to be a major lead, investigators found anti-depressants at Mr. Lubitz’s house along with evidence of treatment by various doctors, including a torn-up sick note for the day he flew the plane.According to BBC,investigators also seized other materials including a laptop computer to further assist in the probe.Further queries into Mr. Lubitz’s past indicate that he had been suspended from aviation training at some point after he had suffered serious depression.Could this suicidal tendencies have creeped back into Lubitz?
The Victims
According to Germanwings official reports,victims included 72 German nationals (among them 16 school students),51 Spaniards,the rest were from Australia, Argentina, Britain, Iran, Venezuela, the US, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark and Israel.As recovery and identification efforts continue,it would be interesting to see how drastic measures,including a requirement to have to pilots at the cockpit at any given time(as is the common practice in commercial flight carrying over 50 passengers),will be adopted.The DNA of 78 victims has been successfully established so far.
Story by Jeremiah Wakaya
Senior Editor
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