The co-pilot of the crashed Germanwings plane, Andreas Lubitz, had received treatment for suicidal tendencies years ago, investigators have said, but not in recent doctor visits.

Lubitz is suspected of deliberately crashing the plane in the Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

Officials in Duesseldorf said that the investigation had so far shown no clue to any motive.

So far, DNA strands of 80 of the victims have been found.

Flight 4U 9525: What happened in the final 30 minutes

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32072218

A 30 minute recording obtained from the cockpit voice recorder of flight 4U 9525 provides the clearest indication yet as to what happened on board.

Investigators have listened closely to the audio and say the co-pilot, 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, appears to have deliberately brought the plane down.

So how did this final half hour unfold?

Germanwings flight 4U 9525 took off from Barcelona Airport heading for Duesseldorf, with 150 people on board, at 09:01 GMT on 24 March.

The Airbus 320 began travelling over the sea towards France, taking about half an hour to climb to 38,000ft (11,600m).

It should have been a two-hour flight.

At 09:30 GMT the plane made its final contact with air traffic control - a routine message about permission to continue on its route. Everything seemed to be going as planned.

A minute later at 09:31 GMT, the plane began its descent.

French prosecutor Brice Robin did not release the exact timings of the audio obtained from the recorder, but he said the pilots conversed normally for the first 20 minutes.

However, Mr Robin said although the co-pilot's responses were initially courteous, they became "curt" when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing.

Shortly after this the captain left the cockpit, probably to go to the toilet, according to Mr Robin.

He can be heard asking the co-pilot to take control of the plane. A seat moves backwards, followed by the sound of a door closing.

The co-pilot was left alone in control of the plane. He then pressed the buttons of the flight monitoring systems to send the aircraft into descent, Mr Robin said.

"This action on the altitude controls can only be deliberate," said Mr Robin.

It took less than 10 minutes for the plane to plummet through the sky, during which time the co-pilot did not say a word.

The captain can be heard returning from the bathroom. He was unable to regain access to the cockpit, so started knocking lightly on the door.

He received no response. He then began to pound on the door, but it did not open. Alarms also sounded.

The co-pilot's breathing was normal throughout the final minutes of the flight. He did not send out a distress call.

The Airbus was descending at a rate of about 3-4,000ft per minute. The last radar contact was at 09.40:47 GMT at 6,175ft.

Air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, but to no avail.

During the very last moment of the recording passengers can be heard screaming. Mr Robin said he believed they were unaware of what was happening in the cockpit up until this point.

The plane hit the mountain at 700km (430mph) an hour. "Death was instant," he added.

Who, What, Why: How are cockpit doors locked?

Who, What, Why The Magazine answers the questions behind the news

· 26 March 2015

A prosecutor in Marseille has said the Germanwings plane may have been deliberately crashed by the co-pilot, with the pilot locked out of the cockpit. How could this situation arise?

After 9/11, changes were made to the security of cockpits in an effort to make hijackings more difficult. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, doors should typically be tough enough to withstand a grenade blast. They are usually left locked throughout the flight.

Cockpit security systems are supposed to allow a pilot the ability to access the cockpit. But access can be deliberately denied from within the cockpit.

Cockpit doors on an Airbus - according to this video understood to have been produced by the company - have three modes that are operated from the pilots' seats: unlock, normal, lock.

In the event of whoever is in the cockpit being incapacitated there is a touchpad that will allow cabin crew who know the code to enter.

In "normal" mode the cockpit is locked but can be accessed - after a 30-second delay - by touchpad should the cabin crew get no response from inside.

"Unlocked" mode is what a pilot would use to open the door for a colleague returning from the toilet.

"Locked" means the locking mechanism ignores the touchpad entry code and remains locked for five minutes (it can be repeated). It's easy to see how this would be used to prevent hijackers who have managed to get hold of the code from cabin crew from entering the cockpit.

Some planes may have a screen to tell the pilots who is outside the cockpit door.

If a pilot is unable to access the cockpit, it suggests that his colleague has denied entry.

There is also the question of how many people must be in the cockpit at any one time. Flight attendant Heather Poole tweeted: "In the US a flight attendant always goes into the cockpit whenever a pilot takes a break/leaves."

In contrast, Germanwings cockpit protocols are in line with rules established by the German aviation safety authority, the Luftfahrt Bundesamt. This dictates that when there are two crew, one can leave the cockpit - but only for the absolute minimum time.

Other airlines have a "rule of two", where if a pilot leaves the cockpit for any length of time, another crew member must replace them. However, this is not the case with Lufthansa or other major airlines.

The pilot had been with the airline group for 10 years and has more than 6,000 flying hours. The co-pilot joined the airline in 2013 and had 650 flying hours.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-13