Co-pilot studied suicide methods, cockpit security

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

The co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crashed into the French Alps last week appears to have researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days leading up to the crash.

The Düesseldorf-bound Airbus A320 slammed into the mountains less than an hour after departing Barcelona on March 24, killing all 150 people aboard. Authorities, citing cockpit voice recordings, said they believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and intentionally crashed the plane.

Prosecutors in Düesseldorf said investigators found a tablet computer at Lubitz's apartment, and they were able to reconstruct searches done on it from March 16 to March 23.

"During this time the user was searching for medical treatments, as well as informing himself about ways and possibilities of killing himself," they said in a statement, according to The New York Times. "On at least one day the person concerned also spent several minutes looking up search terms about cockpit doors and their safety measures."

The development came as the second black box from the airliner was found. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said in a news conference that the recorder was "completely blackened." The flight data recorder contains information such as the time, altitude, speed and direction of the aircraft. The cockpit voice recorder was found soon after the crash.

Robin said investigators have identified body parts from all 150 on board the airliner and are studying some 2,800 pieces of the human remains. Matching the parts to DNA samples from families of the victims will be a lengthy process, he added.

New video sheds light on Germanwings crash, co-pilot The CEOs of Germanwings and Lufthansa visited a memorial near the site of the crash in the French Alps on the week anniversary. Meanwhile, two publications described cellphone video they say was taken inside the plane before the crash.

At least 40 cellphones were found at the crash site but they were "extremely damaged," Robin said, adding he has doubts the phones will be useful. Robin didn't make any reference to reports in French magazine Paris Match and German tabloid Bild earlier this week that video shot inside the airliner as it crashed had been found. French police have said the video was probably a hoax, but the deputy editor of Match, Régis Le Sommier, has defended its authenticity.

Earlier Thursday, Germanwings said it was unaware that the co-pilot had suffered from depression during his pilot training, the Associated Press reported. "We didn't know this," said Vanessa Torres, a spokeswoman for Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings.

Lufthansa confirmed Tuesday that Lubitz told its flight school that he had suffered a "serious episode of severe depression" in 2009.

On Thursday, Germany announced the creation of a task force to examine what went wrong and consider whether changes are needed regarding cockpit doors, how pilots pass medical evaluations and how companies recognize psychological problems in employees.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Thursday the Federal Aviation Administration is monitoring the crash investigation.

"I can say with confidence that the U.S. sets the gold standard for aviation safety for the world," Foxx told reporters. "Part of the reason for that is that when incidents like the Germanwings crash occur, we look at those and say, 'OK, could that have happened here?' If the answer is even remotely yes, then we start to think about what kinds of protections do we not have that maybe we should have.

"We're having those conversations at the FAA. Nothing to read out yet about those conversations, but we're trying to dig in and figure out the answers."

Contributing: Katharine Lackey, Bart Jansen and Associated Press



