In a new documentary, the tragic disaster of Germanwings Flight 9525 is revisited, providing a closer look at the terrifying minutes just before co-pilot Andreas Lubitz purposefully crashed the aircraft into the French Alps.
What started off as a normal trip from Barcelona to Düsseldorf on March 24, 2015, descended into an unthinkable catastrophe. All 150 passengers and crew members were killed when the Airbus A320 crashed at 430 mph less than an hour after takeoff.
The crash’s intentionality was later confirmed by investigators. Prior to starting the deadly fall, Lubitz, who had a history of depression and suicide thoughts, waited until he was by himself in the cockpit.
The Calculated Act
Shortly after 10 a.m. local time, flight 9525 took off. After about half an hour, Lubitz was left alone at the controls when Captain Patrick Sondenheimer left the cockpit to visit the restroom. According to the BBC, Lubitz secured the door as it snapped shut behind him, reduced the altitude from 38,000 feet to only 100 feet, and started the plane’s last descent.
Later, black box recordings showed that Lubitz disregarded air traffic control’s repeated attempts to establish contact. Sondenheimer, meantime, is heard frantically pounding on the cockpit door while yelling, “Open the damn door!” in an attempt to recover control.
To make sure none else could get in, Lubitz had overridden the emergency access codes.
Last Words
The recorder captures the screams of passengers in the final moments of the flight, immediately before the aircraft crashes into the mountainside.
Additionally, the black box captured Lubitz’s earlier statements, such as a seemingly ordinary conversation in which he tells the captain, “You can go now,” after being given command of the aircraft.
It was discovered after the tragedy that Lubitz had lied to his employer about being deemed unfit to fly by a physician. Lubitz previously stated (via CBS News): “One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then everyone will know my name and remember it,” according to a former lover who later told a German newspaper.
The official investigation’s conclusions were contested by Lubitz’s family, who maintained that he had passed out before to the collision. Nonetheless, the conclusion that the disaster was premeditated has been broadly supported by the data from the cockpit voice recorder.
Stricter regulations mandating two individuals in the cockpit at all times were among the changes made to aviation safety procedures as a result of the tragedy.
