Plane crash: Focus on the co-pilot (Updated Saturday)

Evidence continues to build that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was suffering from serious mental problems when he deliberately crashed his plane. Meanwhile, the first compensation offer has been given to the families of victims as the search for human remains continues.

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Saturday update

From AFP

AFP quotes the German newspaper Bild as saying that Lubitz and his girlfriend were having a "serious crisis in their relationship" that left him distraught, according to security sources.

Duesseldorf prosecutors said the evidence found in the two homes "backs up the suspicion" that Lubitz "hid his illness from his employer and his colleagues".

They said they had not found a suicide note, confession or anything pointing to a "political or religious" motive but added it would take "several days" to evaluate the rest of what was collected.

Meanwhile, Germanwings has offered the families of the victims of the French Alps air disaster "up to 50,000 euros ($54,806) per passenger" towards their immediate costs, a spokesman said Friday.

Meanwhile, the assistance, which the families would not be required to pay back, was separate from the compensation that the airline will likely have to pay over the disaster, a Germanwings spokesman told AFP, confirming a report by Tagesspiegel daily.

Recovery operations at the remote crash site were still ongoing, with French officials continuing to comb the mountain for body parts and evidence.

"There's not much plane debris left. There's mainly a lot of body parts to pick up. The operation could last another two weeks," said police spokesman Xavier Vialenc.

The plane's second black box, which records flight data, has not yet been recovered.

Friday evening update

It now appears that the mental condition of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was seriously unstable, but that he had likely hidden this fact from his employers. In fact, on the day of the crash, he should not have been flying. German state prosecutors say they the young pilot had "sick notes " from doctors allowing him to take leave from work, including one for the day of the crash.

Friday afternoon update

The focus is increasingly on the mental condition of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. This from AFP:

The co-pilot sought psychiatric help for "a bout of heavy depression" in 2009 and was still getting assistance from doctors, Bild daily said, quoting documents from Germany's air transport regulator Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA).

He was still receiving "regular, individualised medical" treatment, Bild reported, adding that Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa had transmitted this information to the LBA.

He was also listed as “unable to fly” at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Pheonix, Arizona, the newspaper reported, and his FAA file in the US contains a note indicating he underwent a special medical examination.

Friday morning update

Plane crash: Focus on the co-pilot

Immediately after French prosecutor Brice Robin said that 28-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 into a French mountain, killing himself and 149 others, the news media started digging into his background, looking for clues that might explain his seemingly senseless behaviour.

They have not found much. Lubitz, it appears, was an avid flyer, beginning as a glider pilot in his teens and becoming a Lufthansa pilot trainee after finishing a German preparatory school.

He was born into an affluent German family and to his friends, family and acquaintances seemed quite normal, albeit rather quiet. He was a dedicated runner and took part in a number of long-distance events, including a 2013 marathon event sponsored by Lufthansa.

Investigators say they have discovered no links to any terrorist groups and he likely acted as an individual. However, the German media has discovered one possibly troubling episode in his past that might indicate not all was well with the young pilot.

According to the mother of a schoolfriend, Lubitz took a break from training in 2009, suffering what he apparently described as "burnout" or "depression".

Carsten Spohr, CEO of the Germanwings parent company, confirmed that Lubitz did take the break, but upon his return he took the required tests and "he was deemed 100 percent fit to fly."

We can expect to learn much more about Andreas Lubitz in the coming days.

Thurday evening update

Co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings plane: prosecutor

Marignane, France,  AFP – The co-pilot "deliberately" initiated the descent of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps and refused to open the door to the pilot who was outside the cockpit, the lead investigator said on Thursday.

The co-pilot, named as 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, appeared to "show a desire to want to destroy" the plane, prosecutor Brice Robin told reporters.

"The co-pilot was alone at the controls," said Robin, presenting information gathered from the "black box" recorder that records sounds and conversations from the cockpit.

"He ... refused to open the door of the cockpit to the pilot and deliberately began the descent of the plane."

Lubitz was identified as a German citizen who was not known to have any links to terrorism or extremists,

Robin said, adding that German authorities were expected to provide additional information on his background and private life later Thursday or Friday.

The co-pilot turned the "flight monitoring system" button to initiate the plane's descent and spoke "not a single word" during the last 10 minutes before the plane crashed.

The passengers were unaware of their imminent demise "until very last moment" and "died instantly", the prosecutor said.

He said screams could be heard on the recording only in the final seconds.

The recording showed that the pilot and co-pilot talked normally and "courteously" for the first 20 minutes of the flight after it took off from Barcelona.

"Then we hear the pilot ask the co-pilot to take the controls and a seat being pulled back and a door closing. We can assume he left to answer nature's call," said Robin.

"The co-pilot is left alone at the controls. We hear several calls from the pilot asking for entry into the cockpit. There is no response from the co-pilot."

Robin said there were "normal" breathing sounds from Lubitz throughout the rest of the flight that indicated he was conscious.

Morning story

Plane crash: Pilot locked out?

The mystery as to why a Germanwings Airbus 320 carrying 150 people made a controlled eight-minute descent into the side of a French mountain has deepened with a New York Times report that recordings from a black box indicate one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit.

According to the New York Times, the first evidence from the recovered but damaged "black box", the cockpit voice recorder, has indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane's descent and was unable to get back in.

A senior military official involved in the investigation told the Times there was a "very smooth, very cool" conversation between the pilots during the early part of the flight followed by a panicked effort by one pilot to reenter the cockpit.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer," the investigator told the Times.
"And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer… You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."

Aviation experts have been baffled as to why Germanwings Flight 9525 bound for Dussledorf, Germany from Barcelona, Spain started a controlled descent only minutes after reaching its cruising altitude – normally the safest part of a flight.

Here, from AFP, are key questions investigators are trying to answer:

PARIS, AFP — Given that the plane was headed directly for the mountains while making a controlled eight-minute descent – which appears to exclude the scenario of a sudden drop or emergency descent – experts say the descent is likely linked to the crew's actions.

The aircraft continued to have lift (the force holding the plane in the air) in its final moments , according to pilots and ex-investigators of the French air crash investigation agency (BEA).

The plane also stayed on its trajectory except for the change in altitude, according to data provided by the Flightradar24 website. The aircraft sent no distress signal.

"Heading straight for the mountains makes no sense. All of this indicates that there was either an unusual action taken by professional pilots in full possession of their senses or a lack of reaction from the crew," the pilot of a large European airline company told AFP.

"If the pilots failed to stop the plane from crashing into the mountains, they were either unconscious or dead; they either decided to, or were forced to die," one of the experts said.

Another theory put forward by several pilots and ex-BEA investigators is that the plane lost cabin pressure and that the oxygen masks did not work. In that case, the pilots could have fallen victim to hypoxia, or oxygen starvation.

This is what happened in the case of a Helios Airways Boeing 737, which crashed on August 14, 2005, killing all 121 people on board.

In the case of the Germanwings plane, it is too soon to rule out other options such as one of the pilots committing suicide or a third person forcing their way into the cockpit. That is why the analysis of the plane's black boxes is crucial.

"Damaged does not mean unusable," said former BEA director Jean-Paul Troadec.

"The memory card, similar to those found in computers, is particularly well protected. This is the CVR's useful part," he added.

The plane's second black box, which was recording flight technical data, has yet to be found.

The BEA said it had managed to "extract usable data" on Wednesday but was not yet able to provide further information.

"It is much too early to draw any conclusions about what happened," said BEA director Remy Jouty. He said investigators would now focus on a "detailed study to understand and interpret both the sounds and voices which can be heard on the recording".

The CVR also records noises of the cockpit door opening and closing, as well as of the different controls and switches. All these small clicking noises can provide precious information about the cause of the crash.

Fire or depressurization alarms would have also been audible.

The BEA director said radars had shown the Airbus "was flying right to the end", and that it had therefore not exploded prior to crashing.

This was corroborated by the evidence of debris found at the crash site, indicating that the plane had still been in one piece when it crashed.

Witnesses had also confirmed seeing the full plane before it hit the mountains.

You can read our previous coverage here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/506922/plane-crash-in-french-alps-another-mystery

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