Prosecutors Say Germanwings Co-pilot Searched 'Suicide Methods' and 'Cockpit Security' on His Tablet Computer

German prosecutors said internet searches made on the tablet found in Lubitz's Duesseldorf flat included "ways to commit suicide" and "cockpit doors and their security provisions." Prosecutors did not disclose the individual search terms in the browser history but said personal correspondence supported the conclusion Lubitz used the device in the period from March 16 to 23. At a press conference, French prosecutor Brice Robin said there was "reasonable hope" that the Flight Data Recorder, which was being sent to Paris for examination, would provide useful information. The "completely blackened" equipment (image below) was found near a ravine and was not discovered immediately because it was the same color as the rocks, he said. A female police officer digging by hand for clothes in a ravine that had been searched previously found the Flight Data Recorder on the afternoon of April 2nd, about 8 inches below the surface, Robin told reporters. He said: "The second black box [both boxes are actually orange] is an indispensable addition to understand what happened, especially in the final moment of the flight." On March 24, 2015 at 9:40 GMT, the plane smashed into the mountains at a speed of 430 miles an hour, instantly killing all 150 people on board. [Source]

Investigators believe that Lubitz was "very afraid" he would lose his license to fly because of his medical issues, a law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation told CNN. It emerged that Lubitz had battled depression years before he took the controls of Flight 9525 and that he had concealed from his employer a recent sick leave note from a physician. Lubitz told his Lufthansa flight training school in 2009 that he had a "previous episode of severe depression," the German airline confirmed (Lufthansa is the parent company of budget airline Germanwings). The law enforcement source said that Lubitz relapsed with severe depression and stress in late 2014. [Source]

According to the law enforcement source, in the weeks leading up to the crash, Lubitz was shopping doctors, seeing at least five, perhaps as many as six, as he kept going from one doctor to the next seeking help. The 27-year-old was having trouble sleeping, and one of the doctors he saw recently was a sleep specialist, the law enforcement source said. Lubitz apparently told some doctors that he was afraid of losing his pilot's license because of his medical issues. The doctors knew he was a pilot and gave him a "not fit to work" notice, which he was apparently required to give to his employer, even though he didn't, the source said. French prosecutor Robin told media that police found the note, which was torn up, during a search of Lubitz's home. Officials say doctors handled the matter the way they were supposed to and found no negligence on their part. [Source]

Thinking he would stay home from work based on the sick notes, Lubitz was prescribed a lot of medication, including "heavy depression medicine" that would have been "very heavy" on the body and "critical to a pilot," the source said. However, the law enforcement source doesn't think Lubitz was using the medicine while working because investigators interviewed a pilot he flew with the day before who said he was "completely normal" with no problem whatsoever. Inside Lubitz's apartment, investigators found a couple of notes, with only a few words, involving stress, and his pilot's license, the source added. He didn't know if Lubitz wrote these down while talking to someone on the phone or wrote the memo to remind himself of something. [Source]

There are new calls from aviation experts to develop and deploy enhanced crash avoidance software that could take control of an aircraft away from a pilot and steer it to a safe altitude. The technology would work in a similar fashion to crash avoidance technology already used in automobiles if a pilot is incapacitated or ignores audible warnings. The idea is not new. In fact more than 10 years ago following 9/11, Airbus, the manufacturer of the doomed aircraft, was working to d‎evelop aircraft crash avoidance software with tech giant Honeywell -- in part to prevent jetliners from being flown into large buildings or mountains. But the project was ultimately scrapped. [Source]
 

Prosecutors: Lubitz probed suicide methods, cockpit security

April 2, 2015

AP - The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appears to have researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days before he crashed the plane into the French Alps, killing everyone aboard, German prosecutors said Thursday.

Search terms found on a tablet computer at co-pilot Andreas Lubitz's apartment in Duesseldorf provided the first evidence that his actions may have been premeditated.

Germanwings Flight Data Recorder

Germanwings Cockpit Voice Recorder

After listening to the cockpit voice recorder, investigators believe Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out of the Airbus A320 cockpit on March 24 and deliberately sent the plane into a French mountain, killing all 150 passengers and crew.

Investigators said Thursday they had reviewed search terms from March 16-23 that were found on the browser memory of Lubitz's computer, which hadn't been erased.

The co-pilot "informed himself about types and ways of going about a suicide," Duesseldorf prosecutors' spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a statement. "In addition, on at least one day, (Lubitz) concerned himself for several minutes with search terms about cockpit doors and their security precautions."

Prosecutors didn't specify which day that was and said they wouldn't disclose the individual search terms that Lubitz used. They said personal correspondence and search terms on the tablet "support the conclusion that the machine was used by the co-pilot in the relevant period."

French prosecutors, meanwhile, announced that the jet's second black box had been found — the data recorder, which captures 25 hours of information on the position and condition of nearly every part of the plane.

The data recorder was "completely blackened" as though it had been burned and had been buried on a ravine "already explored several times," Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said, adding that it may still be usable.

Looking at diagrams of CVR's and FDR's they have a number of sub assemblies in a sheet metal housing. The memory module, or "crash survivable memory unit" is the part that matters after a crash. It's armored in a cylindrical stainless steel casing, and being heavy, it COULD be torn from the other parts of the recorder, but I think it unlikely that it was destroyed. It may be imbedded in the mountainside, covered by a slide, or it may have flown or rolled some distance, but I believe they will find it. The "crash survivable memory unit" is very rugged, designed to withstand impact, fire, and submersion. - PrivtPilotRadarTech, March 31, 2015

He said investigators had identified body parts from all 150 people aboard the Germanwings flight after finding and studying 2,854 pieces of remains. But he added it will still take a long time for investigators to match the body parts with DNA samples from families of the victims.

At least 40 cellphones have been found at the crash site in "very, very damaged" condition, Robin said.

No video or audio from the cellphones of those aboard the plane has been released publicly. But a French reporter who says he saw video from one cellphone described the excruciating sound of "screaming and screaming" as the plane flew full-speed into the mountain.

Questions persist about journalist Frederic Helbert's reports in the French magazine Paris-Match and in the German tabloid Bild this week about the video that he says he saw, but Helbert vigorously defended his reports in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

Helbert said he viewed the video thanks to an intermediary close to the crash investigation, but does not have a copy of it himself. It was shot from the back of the plane, he said, so "you cannot see their faces, but you can hear them screaming and screaming."

"No one is moving or getting up," he told the AP in Paris. "People understand something terrible is going to happen."

Germanwings, meanwhile, said Thursday it had been unaware that Lubitz had suffered from depression during his pilot training.

Lufthansa, Germanwings' parent company, confirmed Tuesday that it knew six years ago that Lubitz had suffered from an episode of "severe depression" before he finished his flight training. Germanwings hired Lubitz in September 2013.

German prosecutors have said Lubitz's medical records from before he received his pilot's license referred to "suicidal tendencies," but visits to doctors since then showed no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression against others.

Investigators also have found torn-up sick notes from doctors at Lubitz's home, including one that would have kept him off work on the day of the crash.

Germany also announced the creation of an expert task force to examine what went wrong in the Germanwings crash and consider whether changes are needed regarding cockpit doors, how pilots pass medicals and how companies recognize psychological problems in employees. Any conclusions will be shared with international air safety organizations.

France's air accident investigation agency is already examining cockpit entry and psychological screening procedures after the crash.

Latest pictures from plane crash site released: click here for video at BBC.