Germanwings Plane Crash That Killed 150 People Was Murder-Suicide; Co-Pilot Wanted to 'Destroy Plane,' Says Prosecutor
French officials said on Thursday that the Germanwings Flight 9525 plane crash that killed all 150 people on board was deliberately carried out, with co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locking himself in the cockpit with the intention to "destroy the plane."
"The most plausible interpretation is that the co-pilot, through a voluntary act, had refused to open the cabin door to let the captain in. He pushed the button to trigger the aircraft to lose altitude. He operated this button for a reason we don't know yet, but it appears that the reason was to destroy this plane," Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.
BBC News reported that French investigators came to the conclusion after extracting the information from the "black box" voice recorder, which was found at the crash site at the French Alps.
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Robin noted that the captain, identified at this point only as Patrick S., was trying to re-enter the cockpit while Lubitz was steering the plane down, but was unable to do so.
Passengers can be heard screaming just before the crash, Robin added.
"We hear the pilot ask the co-pilot to take control of the plane and we hear at the same time the sound of a seat moving backwards and the sound of a door closing," he explained.
"At that moment, the co-pilot is controlling the plane by himself. While he is alone, the co-pilot presses the buttons of the flight monitoring system to put into action the descent of the aeroplane," Robin continued.
"This action on the altitude controls can only be deliberate."
When asked by reporters about how he would describe the incident, the prosecutor said: "When you are responsible for 150 people, I don't call it a suicide."
The Telegraph noted that Lubitz was a 28-year-old German citizen, and is not known to have any links to terrorism or extremism.
Patrick S, a father of two children, had over 10 years experience flying for Lufthansa and Germanwings, and had completed more than 6,000 flight hours on the Airbus 320.
A retired Lufthansa pilot identified only as Dieter described the captain as one of the best pilots he has worked with.
"He was someone very reliable, he was one of the best pilots we had," he said. "I am 100 percent sure they did the best they could. That's what I think because I knew him very well, he was one of the best, he had a lot of experience, he had more than 6,000 flight hours behind him."
What is known about Lubitz is that he had 630 flight hours and joined Germanwings in September 2013 straight from the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen.
Robin noted that the co-pilot was "fully qualified to pilot the aircraft on his own."
Luftsportclub Westerwald, a flying club in Germany where Lubitz was a member, released a tribute statement for the co-pilot before news of his actions on the plane was made public.
The statement read: "Andreas died as first officer on the tragic flight. Andreas became a member of the association as a teenager, he wanted to realize his dream of flying. He began as a gliding student and made it to become a pilots on an Airbus 320."
It continued: "He was able to fulfill his dream, the dream he has now so dearly paid for with his life. The members of the LSC Westerwald mourn Andreas and the other 149 victims of the disaster on March 24, 2015."
Rescue workers have meanwhile been battling harsh condition on the remote French Alps and are trying to collect the bodies of the victims, which are said to have been "strewn for hundreds of meters."
CNN added that the bodies won't be released to the families until DNA identification work has been completed.
