2nd Germanwings 'Black Box' Confirms Crash Was Deliberate

Pictures showing the second black box from the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps last week, are displayed for the media during a press conference in Marseille, southern France, April 2, 2015.French aviation investigators said the first analysis of the second "black box" from the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps last month reinforces the theory that the co-pilot crashed the plane deliberately, killing all 150 people aboard.

Investigators announced Friday that the flight data recorder from the Germanwings plane indicates the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, having locked his partner out of the cockpit, re-set the automatic pilot and repeatedly increased the speed as the plane made its deadly descent.

The flight data recorder was recovered on Thursday. The device records crucial technical information from nearly every instrument on the plane, helping to provide clues about the moments leading up to a plane crash.  

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French aviation investigators said the first analysis of the second "black box" from the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps last month reinforces the theory that the co-pilot crashed the plane deliberately, killing all 150 people aboard.

Investigators announced Friday that the flight data recorder from the Germanwings plane indicates the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, having locked his partner out of the cockpit, re-set the automatic pilot and repeatedly increased the speed as the plane made its deadly descent.

The flight data recorder was recovered on Thursday. The device records crucial technical information from nearly every instrument on the plane, helping to provide clues about the moments leading up to a plane crash.  

Lubitz acted when pilot left cockpit

Investigators say that Lubitz locked Sondheimer out when he left the cockpit to go to the lavatory an hour after the Germanwings flight left Barcelona, Spain en route to Dusseldorf. 

They say Lubitz then put the Airbus A320 into a steady descent, ignoring the pilot's frantic demands to open the cockpit door, which could be heard on the plane's cockpit voice recorder.

Lubitz told the flight school for Lufthansa, the corporate parent for its budget carrier Germanwings, in 2009 that he had had a "serious depressive episode," but Lufthansa certified him as fit to fly.

Source: voanews.com