Germanwings Flight 9525: Pilot Andreas Lubitz ‘researched cockpit doors, suicide’

INVESTIGATORS are analysing mobile phones found at the Germanwings crash site, after it was revealed the co-pilot searched for details on suicide and cockpit doors.

Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said said 40 mobile phones had been found at that crash site in a “very, very damaged” condition.

It is understood the passengers may have tried to use their phones to call relatives and loved ones as they plane was about to crash.

Mr Robin said: “I don’t know if anything will be extracted from them.”
He confirmed the phones were on their way to specialist teams in Rosny-sous-Bois outside Paris to be further examined for information.

The discovery of the phones comes after ParisMatch, a French magazine, and Bild, Germany’s largest tabloid newspaper, said they had “obtained” mobile phone footage found in the wreckage.
Authorities have said the reports of such mobile footage are “totally wrong”.

Paris Match journalist Frédéric Helbert, who claimed he saw the footage said: “If all the mobile phones and notably all the SIM cards found at the scene have not been analysed – because their data can be retrieved – it suggests there is a real problem in terms of the investigation.”
Julian Reicheltl, editor-in-chief of Bild newspaper, said that passengers can be heard screaming.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Reichert said it was a “very disturbing scene”.

He said: “We are in, what we believe to be the very final moments of the plane, is that plane heading downwards people are being in panic, people are screaming and, you know, in the background we hear that metallic bang that was talked about before.”

What the co-pilot searched for online

German prosecutors say the co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings plane in the French Alps had searched online for information about suicide and cockpit doors in the week before the disaster.
A tablet computer which prosecutors said was used by Andreas Lubitz was found in a search of a flat he used in Dusseldorf, the prosecutor’s office in the western city said in a statement.

“The browser history wasn’t erased, in particular the search terms called up on this device in the period from March 16 to March 23 were able to be retraced,” it said on Thursday.
It indicated the user had been researching “medical methods of treatment”, “ways to commit suicide” as well as “cockpit doors and their security provisions”, it added.

A senior European government official with knowledge of the case told CNN Lubitz’s actions and search history amounted to “premeditated murder.”

Carnage ... the Gendarmerie High-Mountain Rescue Group working at the crash site of the Germanwings Flight 9525 near Le Vernet, French Alps.

Second black box found

The statement was released as the news came that the second black box from the Germanwings plane has been found after a nine-day search.

Authorities are hoping to unearth more clues about the disaster from the black box after the first voice recorder suggested that co-pilot Lubitz deliberately locked his captain out of the Airbus A320’s cockpit and intentionally crashed Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf into a French mountainside on March 24.
All 150 people on board the plane were killed.

Black box ... a picture of the second black box from the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps.

Body parts from all 150 victims identified

French investigators have identified body parts from all 150 people aboard the Germanwings flight.
Investigators have found and studied 2,854 body parts, Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday.
But he said it will still take a long time to match the body parts with DNA samples from families of the victims.

Devastation ... relatives gather at a monument to honour the victims of Germanwings flight 9525 near the crash site in Le Vernet, France.

Germanwings ‘unaware’ of co-pilot’s depression

Meanwhile, Germanwings says it was unaware that the co-pilot had suffered from depression during his pilot training.

German airline Lufthansa confirmed on Tuesday that it knew six years ago that Lubitz had suffered from an episode of “severe depression” before he finished his flight training.
“We didn’t know this,” said Vanessa Torres, a spokeswoman for Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings, which hired Lubitz in September 2013.

She declined to explain the discrepancy, citing the ongoing investigation. Ms Torres noted that Lufthansa has said Lubitz held a “fully valid class 1 medical certificate” on the day of the crash.

Evidence ... investigators said they have found mobile phones amid the crash debris but the phones haven’t yet been thoroughly examined. 

 

No taboos ... Andreas German prosecutors say Lubitz’s medical records before he received his pilot’s licence referred to ‘suicidal tendencies

Taskforce to examine what went wrong

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt and the German Aviation Association, which represents German airlines, announced the creation of an expert task force to examine what went wrong in the Germanwings crash.

The panel will consider whether changes are needed to cockpit doors or pilot procedures for passing medicals and will discuss “the question of recognising psychological peculiarities,” Mr Dobrindt said.
Aviation association chief Klaus-Peter Siegloch said the task force will work “very quickly” but “it is very important that we do not reach overhasty conclusions.”

“We have no taboos about what the task force will discuss,” said Mr Siegloch, adding that any conclusions will be shared with international air safety organisations.

France’s air accident investigation agency has already said it will examine cockpit entry and psychological screening procedures.

  Difficult terrain ... rescue workers continue their search operation near the site of the Germanwings plane crash in Seyne les Alpes, France. 

 

German prosecutors say Lubitz’s medical records from before he received his pilot’s licence referred to “suicidal tendencies” but visits to doctors since then showed no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression toward others.

The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive. But the override code known to the crew doesn’t go into effect if the person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry.

At the crash scene, investigators said on Thursday they have found mobile phones amid the crash debris but the phones haven’t yet been thoroughly examined.

The French magazine Paris-Match and the German tabloid Bild say they have seen a mobile phone video from the final moments of Flight 9525. Authorities have said investigators have no such video but didn’t rule out the possibility that some videos like that may exist.