Baffling revelations were made on Tuesday by the authorities investigating the crash of Germanwings flight 4U9525. After the recovery and analysis of the black boxes, which record up to 25 hours, investigators concluded that 28-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked himself alone in the cockpit and crashed the plane on purpose, killing 150 people - himself included.
"The most plausible interpretation is that the co-pilot, with a voluntary abstention, refused to open the cockpit's door, and pressed the button that initiated the descent," Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin revealed, during a press conference held on Tuesday.
"He pressed the button for a reason that, as of today, we ignore completely; but that we can analyse as a will to destroy this aircraft," he stated.
The flight recorders, recovered from the crash site in the French Alps, show that the captain left the cockpit for a brief moment; when he tried to get back in, the door was locked. He repeatedly identified himself to the other co-pilot, but had no answer from the inside. The situation quickly escalated to full blown panic, as the plane initiated a 8-minute descent that would result in the crash. The black boxes show the captain tried to break into the cockpit, which wasn't possible due to the strict security measures imposed after 9/11 to prevent hijacking situations.
Another perplexing finding in the flight recorder is that Lubitz was calm and breathing fine just before the crash. He did not utter a word, but his breathing was distinguishable. The passengers didn't understand what was happening until moments before the crash, Brice Robin said, referring to screams heard only right before impact.
In face of the tragedy, police has raided the German co-pilot's apartment in Dusseldorf. They were looking for anything the could explain the mysterious decision to kill himself and 149 others in the middle of the Alps, an area with limited access. At this point, there are no reasons for investigators to link this tragedy to a terrorist attack, Marseille's prosecutor stressed. Most of the victims were Spanish and German nationals, but authorities confirmed three Britons were also killed.
