Germanwings plane crash: Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed plane deliberately, French prosecutor says

Updated

A Marseille prosecutor says the co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, appears to have crashed the plane deliberately.

Prosecutor Brice Robin said the action of manipulating "what is called the flight monitoring system in order to embark on the descent of the plane" could "only be deliberate".

"I repeat, when he was alone, in charge of the Airbus, the co-pilot started the flight monitoring system to get the plane to descend," he said.

"The action on this altitude selector can only be voluntary. I repeat, action on this altitude selector can only be deliberate."

The German citizen, named by Mr Robin as Andreas Lubitz, 28, was left in sole control of the Airbus A320 after the captain left the cockpit.

He then refused to re-open the door and pressed a button that sent the jet into its fatal descent, Mr Robin said.

Mr Robin said co-pilot Lubitz took advantage of the absence of the pilot, but it was unclear whether he knew the pilot would leave the cockpit when he did.

He said that "one can then hear several calls from the commander asking to be allowed into the cockpit", but there was no answer.

"He knocked on the door and there was no answer from the co-pilot either," he said.

"One can then hear the noise of human breathing within the cockpit, and that human breathing noise can be heard until the final impact which means that theoretically the co-pilot was alive.

"Then, one hears contact also from the Marseille air traffic control tower, but no answer from the co-pilot, even though the Marseille control tower tried getting in touch with him several times.

"But we can analyse it that the intention was to destroy this plane."

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said Lubitz had undergone the requisite training and that he was fit for flying.

"His performance was without any criticism," Mr Spohr said.

"The few hours after having heard this, we can only speculate on what might have been the motivation of the co-pilot.

"I would like to say that ... by far this is the most terrible event of our company, and we have the full trust in our pilots ... they are an integral part of our brand and ... what has happened here is an individual event."

German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said that "according to the current state of knowledge and after comparing information that we have, [Lubitz] does not have a terrorist background."

Mr Robin refused to describe the crash as a suicide.

"People who commit suicide usually do so alone ... when we have the lives of 150 passengers involved, I can't call this a suicide," he said.

Mr Robin said the black box cockpit recording recovered from the wreckage suggested passengers did not realise what was happening until the last moment. He said they died "instantly".

German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt described the incident as "truly more than shocking".

Lubitz had 630 hours of flying experience

Lubitz "was First Officer at Germanwings since September 2013" and had 630 hours of flying experience, a Lufthansa spokeswoman confirmed.

Prior to that, he had been trained as a pilot at Lufthansa Flight Training in the northern German city of Bremen.

Lubitz was from the western town of Montabaur and lived with his parents there while keeping a flat in Dusseldorf, Montabaur mayor Gabriele Wieland told national news agency DPA.

Lubitz was registered as a member of a private flight club, LSC Westerwald, and was an avid runner who often took part in local races, according to public records.

By comparison, the plane's pilot had more than 10 years and 6,000 hours of experience flying the Airbus A320 model, Lufthansa revealed previously.

Lufthansa said it had no plans to name the flight personnel at this stage of the investigation "to protect the crew and their families," a spokesman said.

Aviation expert Neil Hansford told ABC's 7.30 that since the September 11 attacks, cockpit doors had been toughened and the pilot would not have been able to re-enter the cockpit without the co-pilot opening it.

"He could have bashed it as long as he liked," he said.

"No matter what you do, if you are on the other side of the door, unless someone lets you in that is the way they are designed. The ... door is controlled by the pilot on the flight."

Mr Spohr agreed, saying that no security "in the world" could protect an airline from the kind of action taken by Lubitz.

"Whatever safety provisions you have in a company, however high the standards, such an isolated case cannot be completely ruled out," he said.

"No system in the world can rule it out."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was seeking an urgent briefing on the latest developments.

"I'm seeking a briefing on it as you'd expect but I just want to assure people that whenever there's a major aviation incident, everyone reviews their safety procedures to ensure our airlines are as safe as they possibly can be," Mr Abbott said.

"Aviation is the safest form of transport and we want to keep it that way."

Pilots may temporarily leave the cockpit at certain times and in certain circumstances, such whilst the aircraft is cruising, according to German aviation law.

Lufthansa said that its cockpit doors can be opened from the outside with a code, in line with regulations introduced after the September 11 attacks.

However, the code system can be blocked from inside the cockpit, according to an Airbus promotional video posted online and confirmed by the planemaker.

The air disaster has raised questions surrounding the mental health of aviation staff, but airline operations executive and former commercial pilot Trevor Jensen said prospective pilots were already subject to stringent psychological testing.

"It goes into all aspects of personality and they are very detailed. The psych tests take a good part of a full day," Mr Jensen said.

Crash site 'shocking', mountain guide says

The new information was released as families and friends of victims began arriving in France to travel to the remote mountainous crash site area, where locals have opened their doors in a show of solidarity with the grieving relatives.

Two planes arrived in southern France on Thursday from Barcelona and Dusseldorf with families and friends.

Tents were set up for them near the crash site area to give DNA samples to start the process of identifying the bodies of loved ones, at least 50 of whom were Spaniards and at least 72 Germans.

Meanwhile, the remains of victims, found scattered across the slopes, were being taken by helicopter to nearby Seyne-les-Alpes, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

A mountain guide who got near the crash site said he was unable to make out recognisable body parts.

"It's incredible. An Airbus is enormous. When you arrive and there's nothing there ... it's very shocking," said the guide, who did not wish to be identified.

The crash site, which is situated at an altitude of about 1,500 metres, is accessible only by helicopter or an arduous hike on foot.

Lyon-based international police agency Interpol said it had dispatched a team of victim identification experts to the site.

ABC/wires

Topics: air-and-space, accidents, france, germany, spain, australia

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