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2015 Germanwings Crash

2015 Germanwings Crash19 posts
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6 May, 2015

Rehearsed crash on outbound flight

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Investigators say Lubitz practiced entering the fatal descent settings on the previous, outbound flight. The changes in autopilot settings, mimicking those which, two hours later, crashed the jet on its way back to Duesseldorf from Barcelona, would barely have been noticeable because the jet was already descending. Investigator:

I can’t speculate on what was happening inside his head; all I can say is that he changed this button to the minimum setting of 100 feet and he did it several times.

3 Apr, 2015

Acelerated descent

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Data from second black box of plane suggests that co-pilot Lubitz deliberately accelerated its descent. French BEA crash investigation agency:

The second flight recorder, recovered on Thursday, showed that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to put the airplane on a descent towards an altitude of 100ft (30m)…Then several times the pilot modified the automatic pilot settings to increase the speed of the airplane as it descended.

2 Apr, 2015

Researched suicide methods, door security

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Analysis of a tablet device retrieved from Lubitz’s Dusseldorf apartment, shows he was researching suicide methods and cockpit-door security days before the crash. The search history also revealed searches for medical treatment.

During this time the user was searching for medical treatments, as well as informing himself about ways and possibilities of killing himself. On at least one day the person concerned also spent several minutes looking up search terms about cockpit doors and their safety measures.

30 Mar, 2015

Flight data recorder unrecoverable

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A senior Lufthansa manager doubts that the flight data recorder (will be found because the plane was traveling so fast (500 mph) that the recorder could have been pulverized. The cockpit voice recorder has already been found.

It could be that the impact was too much and it is not sending any signals.

Lubitz’s remains found

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Crash scene investigators find body parts belonging to Lubitz. The investigation’s chief forensic scientist confirms this bit of news. Forensic experts are analyzing over 600 body parts scattered across an inaccessible valley.

‘Had treatment for suicidal tendencies’

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German prosecutor Kumpa says Lubitz had received treatment for suicidal tendencies before becoming pilot.

Several years before Lubitz became a pilot he had at that time been in treatment of a psychotherapist because of what is documented as being suicidal. In the following period, and until recently, further doctor’s visits took place, resulting in sick notes without any suicidal tendencies or aggression against others being recorded.

29 Mar, 2015

Visited gay porn and suicide sites

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New information in the case is revealed by police: Lubitz visited gay porn websites as well as websites relating to suicide; he had received medical treatment for vision problems, causing him to fear he was losing his eyesight; Lubitz was often the target of gossip about his sexuality and was given the nickname “Tomato Andy”; in the months leading up to the crash, he was being treated by four psychiatrists; a “small mountain” of antidepressants were found at his apartment; and in his diary, Lubitz expressed his fears that he would be “found out” and would then lose his job. He also wrote:

I have too much work and I am not able to do my job properly.

A German police source:

We have a team disassembling his computer, and that of his girlfriend, because the information that we received was that he trawled the dark side of the web visiting, among other things, sites containing gay porn, suicide themes and sexual perversions.

28 Mar, 2015

Offers financial assistance

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Lufthansa offers to pay the families of the victims up to 55,000 euros per passenger on the crashed Germanwings plane. The families are not required to pay back this financial assistance. Additional compensation from Lufthansa is expected to follow since the fact that Lubitz had been hiding a serious mental illness from management did not activate the exclusion clause in Lufthansa’s insurance policy.

27 Mar, 2015

No intact bodies found

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Crash investigators have have found no intact bodies and up to 600 pieces of human remains. The remains were flown to Paris. Families at the site have been asked to provide DNA samples from personal items like toothbrushes and jewelry to match remains to names. A make-shift laboratory has been set up across two hotels in Barcelona, where the families are staying. Families have also been asked if they can recall what clothing the victims may have been wearing, and if they had any distinctive features such as tattoos. It could take two weeks to finish the recovery.

‘One day I will change the whole system’

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Police find a variety of medications at Lubitz’s apartment in Dusseldorf, suggesting Lubitz had a serious psychosomatic illness. An ex-lover, Maria, claims Lubitz told her he was planning an act so heinous his name would be remembered forever. Lubitz had said:

One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then all will know my name and remember it.

Maria also said Lubitz was a tormented, erratic man who was great at hiding his darkest thoughts. He would wake up from nightmares screaming, “We’re going down!”

We spoke a lot about work and then he became another person. He became agitated about the circumstances in which he had to work, too little money, anxiety about his contract and too much pressure. During conversations he’d suddenly throw a tantrum and scream at me. I was afraid. He even once locked me in the bathroom for a long time. The torn up sick notes make sense now to me and were a clear sign that he did not want to admit that his big dream of flying as a captain was over.

Authorities find torn-up sick notes

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German authorities find torn-up sick notes showing that Lubitz was dealing with an illness that should have kept him from flying on the day of the crash. Lubitz apparently hid these notes from the airline. German law requires employees to immediately inform their employers if they are unable to work.

Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors…The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues.

26 Mar, 2015

‘Co-pilot crashed plane deliberately’

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French Prosecutor Brice Robin claims that Lubitz, the co-pilot, crashed the plane deliberately.

While the co-pilot was alone he locked the door and engaged a system which started the descent of the plane. This can only be done voluntarily….The co-pilot didn’t say a single word while he was alone and could be heard breathing normally. It wasn’t the breath of someone who was struggling. He didn’t say a single word, it was total silence.

25 Mar, 2015

Pilot locked outside cabin tried to smash door

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Audio recovered from the cockpit voice recorder indicates one pilot left the cockpit before the plane began its descent and was unable to get back in. A senior military investigator:

The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer. And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. … You can hear he is trying to smash the door down. We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out. But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.

Data recorder pictures

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France’s aviation investigation bureau releases photos of the mangled voice data recorder from the flight, which were recovered from the crash site, 2000m above sea level. French officials say they are working to pull its data. The voice recorder takes audio feeds from four microphones within the cockpit and records all the conversations between the pilots, air traffic controllers as well as any noises heard in the cockpit. Cazeneuve:

The black box has been damaged. We will have to put it back together in the next few hours to be able to get to the bottom of this tragedy. told RTL radio, adding the box was still viable.

24 Mar, 2015

Flights cancelled

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Several Germanwings flights are cancelled after their crews refuse to fly over concerns the crash may have been linked to a repair to the nose-wheel landing doors on Monday, according to an unconfirmed report in Spiegel magazine. Lufthansa denies that there was any link between the repair and the cancelled flights. The airline confirms that the aircraft had been grounded for an hour on Monday for repairs to the nose-wheel landing doors, but insisted the issue was not “safety-related”.

The repair was purely to fix a noise that the door was making, and the aircraft was flying again from 10am on Monday.

Black Box found

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French Interior Minister Cazeneuve says a black box has been located at the site in the French Alps where a plane crashed while traveling from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.  Investigators described a scene of devastation where the airliner crashed. Aerial photographs showed smoldering wreckage and a piece of the fuselage with six windows. Bruce Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, says he saw the destruction from a helicopter:

We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart, the bodies are in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage.

French police at the crash site said it will take days to recover the bodies due to difficult terrain, snow and incoming storms.

We are still searching. It’s unlikely any bodies will be airlifted until Wednesday

16 students, 2 teachers dead

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The German North Rhine-Westphalia state Education Ministry says a group of that 16 tenth-grade students and two teachers from Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium High School in the city of Haltern, northeast of Duesseldorf. Local education minister

It was a Spanish language exchange programme and they were flying home after having what was probably the most wonderful time of their lives.

Haltern Mayor Bodo Klimpel:

This is, of course, the worst thing you could imagine.

Plane crashes in France

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An Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, the budget carrier of Germany’s Lufthansa crashes in a remote area of the French Alps Tuesday, near the ski resort of Barcelonnette, killing all 150 on board in the worst plane disaster in mainland France for four decades. The Airbus A320 plunged for eight minutes into a snowbound inaccessible mountain area in southeastern France. French officials say no distress signal had been issued. The plane, carrying 144 mainly Spanish and German passengers and six crew, was travelling from Barcelona to the western German city of Duesseldorf when it came down. Civil aviation authorities

The crew did not send a Mayday. It was air traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress because there was no contact with the crew of the plane

Lufthansa:

We’ve never had a total loss of aircraft in the company’s history until now.