[ 2015-04-03 ]

Second black box 'confirms co-pilot Andreas Lubitz acted deliberately'
The second black box found after the Germanwings
plane crashed into the French Alps last month has
confirmed that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz
deliberately caused the disaster, French
investigators said.

According to the investigators, he repeatedly
accelerated the airline as he crashed into a
mountain in the French Alps killing 150 people.

The French BEA crash invesigators said in a
statement that the pilot changed the settings to
increase the plane's speed.

"A first reading shows that the pilot in the
cockpit used the automatic pilot to descend the
plane towards an altitude of 100 feet (30 metres).
Then, several times during the descent, the pilot
changed the automatic pilot settings to increase
the aircraft's speed," BEA said.

The information from the flight data recorder
comes a day after authorities found the second
black box, nine days after the crash.

BEA added that they were "continuing to determine
the precise sequence of events during the
flight".

The plane smashed into the mountains last week at
a speed of 430 miles an hour, instantly killing
everyone on board - half of them German and more
than 50 from Spain.

The latest development in the tragedy came on
Thursday with the discovery that Andreas Lubitz
had sought information online about suicide and
cockpit doors.

Other facts that have come to light include that
the 27-year-old was diagnosed as suicidal "several
years ago", before he became a pilot.

Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, has
come under huge pressure since the crash after it
was revealed that Lubitz had told his bosses that
he had suffered from severe depression.

The German flag carrier said the co-pilot had told
the airline in 2009 about his illness after
interrupting his flight training.

Source - The Telegraph

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