Friday, March 27, 2015

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Investigators Pursue Motive in Germanwings Crash - New York Times


PARIS — Investigators were scouring for clues on Friday to help solve the mystery of why Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old German co-pilot, apparently slammed Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountainside in the French Alps on purpose, killing all 150 on board. Prosecutors are examining several theories, including that the crash was a suicide or a mass murder.


On Thursday, the French prosecutor leading the investigation into the crash, citing the voice recordings on one of the plane’s so-called black boxes, said the evidence gleaned so far appeared to suggest that Mr. Lubitz, an unassuming former flight attendant with a passion for flying, had locked the plane’s pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on its lethal descent.


The crash claimed victims from more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Spain and the United States.



As what had initially appeared to be a tragic accident prompted a sprawling criminal investigation, investigators began combing through Mr. Lubitz’s background, including whether he had a history of depression or psychological problems. Among the issues that are likely to come under scrutiny are his family background, whether he had financial troubles and his personal relationships.




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Prosecutor: Co-Pilot Crashed Plane



Prosecutor: Co-Pilot Crashed Plane



Brice Robin, the chief Marseille prosecutor, said on Thursday the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A320 deliberately crashed the plane that killed himself and 149 others aboard in the French Alps.


Video by Associated Press on March 26, 2015. Photo by Franck Pennant/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

Investigators in the German city of Düsseldorf were sifting through the contents of two large moving boxes and two plastic bags of possible evidence removed from Mr. Lubitz’s apartment late Thursday, said Markus Niesczery, a police spokesman. He denied reports that significant clues had already been found, saying that investigators were still evaluating the items.


“The items need to be evaluated to determine whether they can give any indication of a possible motive,” Mr. Niesczery said.


Prosecutors in Düsseldorf planned to hold a news conference around 12 p.m. to provide an update on their investigation.


Carsten Spohr, the chief executive of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said on Thursday that Mr. Lubitz had passed the company’s health checks with “flying colors.”


“He was 100 percent flightworthy without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said.


But he said there had been an instance six years ago when Mr. Lubitz took a break from his training for several months. He said that if the reason was medical, German rules on privacy prevented the sharing of such information. Mr. Spohr said the revelation of Mr. Lubitz’s actions had left him stunned.


Some international airlines responded to the crash by introducing new rules requiring that two crew members always be present in the cockpit, after the French prosecutor revealed that Mr. Lubitz had locked the plane’s pilot out of the cockpit before starting the deadly descent. The airlines that said they were instituting a two-person rule in the cockpit included Air Canada, easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle.



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Maps and a timeline of what is known so far about the timeline of the crash.




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All German airlines will introduce that requirement, the German aviation association said on Friday.


Thomas Winkelmann, the head of Germanwings, however, expressed doubt that such a rule would have prevented Tuesday’s crash.


“I ask myself, when a person is so bent on committing a criminal act, whether that is preventable if for example a stewardess or steward is in the cockpit,” Mr. Winkelmann told the German public broadcaster ZDF on Thursday.


Investigators are still trying to understand why the pilot left the cockpit, although most airlines allow it during noncritical phases of flight. There are no regulations requiring that a second crew member be present in the cockpit when one pilot leaves, usually for physiological reasons. The French prosecutor, Brice Robin, said it was reasonable to assume the pilot left the cockpit to use the toilet.


Members of a flight crew would typically use a fail-safe code to open the door if someone in the cockpit could not or would not let them in. The pilot would have known the code, Mr. Spohr said. However, the co-pilot could have activated a switch that prevents the door from opening for five minutes, or he could have found some other way to block the door, Mr. Spohr said.


Mr. Robin said that the Germanwings flight had begun prosaically, with polite exchanges between the two pilots as the flight began its course to Düsseldorf from Barcelona, Spain.


However, about a half-hour into the flight, he said that Mr. Lubitz appeared to have locked out the pilot of the plane and did not let him back in, prompting the pilot to demand access. Investigators, citing the plane’s voice recorder, said they could hear the sound of someone trying to break down the door.


Mr. Robin said the plane’s voice recorder showed that Mr. Lubitz was breathing normally in the moments leading up to the crash, indicating that he had deliberately crashed the plane.



Melissa Eddy contributed reporting from Düsseldorf, Germany, and Alison Smale from Berlin.











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