Skip to main content
France

Germanwings A320 crash: pilot locked out of cockpit

The pilot on the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps was locked out of the cockpit before the plane went down, killing 150 people, a source close to the investigation said on Thursday.

French gendarmerie helicopter flies over crash site
French gendarmerie helicopter flies over crash site Reuters/Emmanuel Foudrot
Advertising

The breakthrough in the investigation, which has increased speculation over the cause of the disaster, came as bereaved families from Spain and Germany began arriving near the remote mountainous crash site.

Cockpit recordings recovered from the crash site indicated one of the seats was pushed back and the door opened and closed. Then knocking is heard, said the source, adding "there was no more conversation from that point until the crash".

The source said an alarm indicating the proximity to the ground could be heard before the moment of impact.

All 150 people on board, including two babies and 16 German school exchange pupils, died when the Germanwings flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf smashed into the mountains after an eight-minute descent.

The Airbus A320 sent no distress signal and the crew failed to respond to ground control's desperate attempts to make contact.

The cockpit recording showed the pilots speaking normally in German at the start of the flight, the source said, adding that it could not be determined if it was the captain or the first officer who left the cockpit.

The New York Times cited a senior military official involved in the investigation as saying the black box data indicated one pilot tried unsuccessfully to bash his way back in to the cockpit.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer," the investigator told the newspaper. "And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer."

He continued: "You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."

In a statement overnight, Germanwings said that "at the moment, we do not have information from competent authorities to confirm this story."

"We are doing everything to get the most information possible and we are not engaging in speculation."

Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa said the co-pilot had been working for them since September 2013 and had 630 hours of flight experience.

The pilot had more than 10 years experience and 6,000 hours flying time.

Under strengthened security measures introduced after the September 11, 2001 hijackings and attacks, authorisation to open a cockpit door can only come from inside and from a pilot.

Authorities have said they have no explanation as yet for the tragedy but said that the plane was still flying when it crashed into the mountain and did not explode mid-air.

The prosecutor in the southern city of Marseille, who is leading the judicial enquiry into the accident, is due to brief reporters at 12:30 pm local time (1130 UT).

RFI

On Wednesday, Rémi Jouty, the head of France's BEA crash investigation agency, told reporters he still had "not the slightest explanation" for the tragedy at this stage.
"
It is inexplicable," Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said in Frankfurt. "The plane was in perfect condition and the two pilots were experienced."

Investigators are still hunting for the second black box, which would reveal technical flight data.

President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday the casing of this box had been found but not the device itself.

France's interior minister has said the probe is not focusing on a possible terror attack.

Meanwhile families of victims have begun arriving in France, an interior ministry spokesman said.

"Two planes from Duesseldorf and Barcelona, with families and friends of victims on board, have just landed," the official, Pierre-Henry Brandet, said on Thursday.

They are due to meet prosecutor Brice Robin before taking a bus to the area of the crash in the Alps.

Authorities on the ground resumed the search at dawn Thursday.

The crash site, which is situated at about 1,500 metres altitude, is accessible only by helicopter or after a difficult walk on foot.

 

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.