Germanwings co-pilot intentionally crashed plane, investigator says

Debris from the Airbus A320 that crashed into a mountainside in the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 people on board. Eerie detail from the final minutes of the flight were released today by French investigators. Photo by Thomas Koehler/photothek.net/Pool/via Reuters

The co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that smashed into the French Alps Tuesday deliberately crashed the plane, a French prosecutor said in a press conference Thursday.

Marseille public prosecutor Brice Robin said that the 28-year-old co-pilot, whom he identified as German citizen Andreas Lubitz, had locked the pilot out of the cockpit after he had left to use the bathroom, and pressed a button that triggered the plane to descend. “The intention was to destroy this plane,” Robin said. He reiterated that there is no indication of terrorism.

The Airbus A-320 was carrying 144 passengers and six crew members when it went down. There were no survivors.

The Guardian reporter Kim Willsher, who is in Paris, wrote of the disturbing details that emerged from Robin’s press conference:

Robin said the co-pilot could be heard breathing right up until the point of impact, suggesting he had not lost consciousness. However, he failed to respond to increasingly desperate calls from the commander trying to break down the cockpit door, or to air traffic controllers.

The Guardian is following the story in a live blog.

The passenger jet was flying from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany, before it crashed in the mountainous region of southern France.

Germanwings is a budget airline owned by Lufthansa, which is Germany’s biggest airline.

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