'Black box' shows co-pilot sped up German plane on descent

[Lite Beer]

'Black box' shows co-pilot sped up German plane on descent
By JAMEY KEATEN

PARIS (AP) — Information retrieved from the "black box" data recorder of a doomed German jet shows its co-pilot repeatedly accelerated the plane before it slammed into the French Alps, investigators said Friday.

France's air accident investigation agency, BEA, provided the disturbing new details a day after a gendarme found the blackened data recorder buried in debris scattered along a mountainside ravine.

Based on an initial reading of the recorder, the revelation strengthened investigators' early suspicions that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz meant to destroy the Germanwings A320.

French and German investigators are still trying to figure out why. All 150 people aboard Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were killed in the March 24 crash, which has been a reminder of the trust that passengers place in pilots.

The BEA said the preliminary reading of the data recorder shows that the pilot used the automatic pilot to put the plane into a descent and then repeatedly during the descent adjusted the automatic pilot to speed up the plane.

The agency says it will continue studying the black box for more complete details of what happened. The Flight Data Recorder records aircraft parameters such as the speed, altitude, and actions of the pilot on the commands.

Recording from the plane's other black box — the cockpit voice recorder — previously indicated that Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane, investigators have said.

Mountain officers and trained dogs are continuing to search the crash site. When the terrain is fully cleared of body parts and belongings, a private company will take out the large airplane debris.

Hundreds of victims' relatives have traveled to the region, officials say.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, visiting the area Friday in a visibly somber mood, praised residents who opened up their homes to grieving relatives as well as police and others behind the often-jarring recovery efforts.

"No one is ever prepared to face such an event," he said. "And yet immediately, a show of solidarity got organized — one of an entire region, the beautiful solidarity of people from the mountains; the one also through the state services."

Separately Friday, the Paris prosecutor's office announced it is looking into claims that information from the earliest phase of investigation into the crash was wrongly leaked to the media.

The prosecutor's probe follows a lawsuit filed last week by SNPL, France's leading pilots union over the leaks. The suit doesn't name an alleged perpetrator, a method in French law that leaves investigators to determine who is at fault.

The union is claiming a violation of French law about keeping information secret about ongoing investigations. Many pilots fear that details about the crash could damage public trust in an industry whose image has already been jolted by a string of recent incidents, like the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 a year ago.

Lubitz, 27, spent time online researching suicide methods and cockpit door security in the week before crashing Flight 9525, prosecutors said Thursday — the first evidence that the fatal descent may have been a premeditated act.

German prosecutors say Lubitz's medical records, from before he received his pilot's license, had referred to "suicidal tendencies." Lufthansa, Germanwings' parent company, said it knew six years ago that he had had an episode of "severe depression" before he finished his flight training.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin says his investigation is focusing on France for now, but he has filed a formal request for judicial cooperation from Germany that could expand the scope of his probe.

He said French investigators believe that Lubitz was conscious until the moment of impact, and appears to have acted repeatedly to stop an excessive speed alarm from sounding.

"It's a voluntary action that guided this plane toward the mountain, not only losing altitude but correcting the aircraft's speed," he said Thursday.

Alice Coldefy, the mountain rescue officer who found the data recorder, described her unexpected discovery in a spot that had already been repeatedly searched.

"I found a pile of clothes, we were searching it, we were moving them downhill and while doing this I discovered a box. The color of the box was the same as the gravel, of the black gravel, that is everywhere at the crash site," she told reporters in Seyne-les-Alpes.

So-called black boxes are actually orange, but this one had burned up in the crash and blended with the dark earth covering the area, known to local guides as "the black lands."

"I didn't realize I had found it and I wasn't thinking it was possible to find it among all this debris," she said.

___

Adam Pemble and Nicolas Garriga in Seyne-les-Alpes, and Angela Charlton in Paris, contributed to this report.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-04-04

[hansgruber]

Weak little man who obviously had a deep inferiority complex. Hope there is a hell for this coward.

[Somtamnication]

I truly hope he burns in hell.

[NeverSure]

People do put their whole trust in pilots. That makes this so outrageous as to utterly shock the conscience.

There simply must be a way for airlines and governments to know and to ground a guy like this long before this happens. I really don't give a rip about his or his union's "privacy" if he wants to ferry people in an airliner. The PC crowd which would call for this guy's "rights" drove it right to this point and they have murder on their hands.

[zydeco]

I can't blame the guy for being a suicidal maniac. He was just doing what suicidal maniacs do. The fault is with the airline and any German laws that not only sacrificed the lives of 150 people because of "privacy" concerns, but with a system that even knew he was psychotic and still wanted to give him a career. How all self righteous they must have felt--until that jet went directly into the side of a mountain.

Edited April 4, 2015 by zydeco

[Credo]

You seem to think that the PC crowd, as you call them, think that it's OK for guys like this to fly a plane. It's not and they shouldn't. Should companies treat their employees fairly, yes, but that doesn't mean that you endanger others.

He could have worked for the airline in a number of jobs that wouldn't endanger others.

[NeverSure]

You seem to think that the PC crowd, as you call them, think that it's OK for guys like this to fly a plane. It's not and they shouldn't. Should companies treat their employees fairly, yes, but that doesn't mean that you endanger others.

He could have worked for the airline in a number of jobs that wouldn't endanger others.

Is it true that his medical/psychiatric records were private and the airline didn't have them? If that's true I don't agree at all with his privacy.

I know he had to pass a "medical" which I've also passed many times but it didn't include anything psychiatric.

In the US if any doctor thinks I'm a danger he's required by law to report me to DMV, the local sheriff, or someone who would deal with that issue, physical or mental.

[jacko45k]

It isn't only suicidal/ depression suffering maniacs we have to worry about.

Skies are 'full' of aircraft (3-4000 aircraft at any one time?)....... all with pilot(s).

I have just put myself on edge with a flight to take soon!

[metisdead]

An off topic deflection post has been removed.

[F430murci]

I can't blame the guy for being a suicidal maniac. He was just doing what suicidal maniacs do. The fault is with the airline and any German laws that not only sacrificed the lives of 150 people because of "privacy" concerns, but with a system that even knew he was psychotic and still wanted to give him a career. How all self righteous they must have felt--until that jet went directly into the side of a mountain.

Felt self righteous? No, I think they felt sick to their stomach. What kind of person writes such a thing?

The situation presents a very interesting dilemma. Should everyone with episodes of depression, alcohol or drug use or anxiety be precluded from ever having a Class 1 medical? What if the issues were entirely situational or a one-off episode? Where do you draw the line? Should the same rule apply to bus drivers, taxi drivers, doctors or anyone charged with someone's safety or welfare? What about construction workers or lawyers charged with someone's freedom?

While we are at it, prohibit these same people from having a driver's license, from operating a truck and from ever having a gun.

Let's take it a step farther. If the pilot has any connection to Islam or is a Muslim, let's not let them be a pilot or have a job where they are charged with the safety of another as they, like the depressive type, may snap or convert to an extremist position at any moment.

It is not just German laws. Many country's have privacy laws regarding medical treatment. The airline stood behind a person and tried to help him work through and overcome his issues s that he could live out his dream. That was not evil or bad on the airline.

The alternative here is to now ban everyone with a medical or religious predisposition of losing it from ever having an occupation in which they are charged with the care and safety of others. Lol, let's do that and then ship them all off to places like Thailand where they can teach.

Edited April 5, 2015 by F430murci

[MaxYakov]

You seem to think that the PC crowd, as you call them, think that it's OK for guys like this to fly a plane. It's not and they shouldn't. Should companies treat their employees fairly, yes, but that doesn't mean that you endanger others.

He could have worked for the airline in a number of jobs that wouldn't endanger others.

Is it true that his medical/psychiatric records were private and the airline didn't have them? If that's true I don't agree at all with his privacy.

I know he had to pass a "medical" which I've also passed many times but it didn't include anything psychiatric.

In the US if any doctor thinks I'm a danger he's required by law to report me to DMV, the local sheriff, or someone who would deal with that issue, physical or mental.

Apparently a report, even if one is made, doesn't always get to the right people or is not acted upon - as in the case of the James Eagan Holmes of the Aurora, CO theater massacre "A month before the shooting, Dr. Lynne Fenton reported to the campus police that he had made homicidal statements."

This Treatment Advocacy Center site provides legal information for official intervention w/r mental health issues on a state-by-state basis.