Germanwings co-pilot ‘practised descent on the flight before crash’

The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps after “rehearsing” the descent on an earlier flight, French investigators said on Wednesday. The BEA civil aviation investigators said the co-pilot, 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz, had practised the manouevre on the outbound trip from Duesseldorf to Barcelona just hours before his suicidal actions on the return flight. Data from the earlier flight was found in one of two black boxes from the aircraft.

Several altitude selections towards 100 ft were recorded during descent on the flight that preceded the accident flight, while the co-pilot was alone in the cockpit.

BEA civil aviation investigation report

The probe into the crash confirmed initial suspicions that Lubitz deliberately brought the plane down. During the descent, air traffic controllers in the city of Marseille tried to call the plane 11 times and the air force also tried to contact the plane three times. Investigators said the ongoing probe would examine the “systemic failings” leading to the accident, balancing medical confidentiality with flight safety demands cockpit door locking systems and cockpit access and exit procedures.