Posted on 03/26/2015 6:30:57 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
The German co-pilot who deliberately flew a Germanwings flight into the French Alps has been named as Andreas Lubitz, who was aged 28. Prosecutors said information suggested he was fully conscious as the plane went down.
"The co-pilot is alone at the controls," prosecutor Brice Robin said, drawing on information gathered from the black box recorder. "He voluntarily refused to open the door of the cockpit to the pilot and voluntarily began the descent of the plane."
Details of Lubitz's life are still emerging, with investigators confirming he did not have any known terrorist links. According to the website of the flight club where he was a member, the co-pilot was from Montabaur in Rhineland Palatinate.
German media reports he had 630 flight hours and joined budget airline Germanwings straight out of Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen in September 2013. Authorities have not confirmed if he had any experience as a professional pilot prior to that.
In 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration recognized Lubitz for "meeting and exceeding" the "high educational, licensing and medical standards" established by the body, which regulates civil aviation, reports the Aviation Business Gazette.
The FAA said that the certification standards have evolved to "reduce pilot errors that lead to fatal crashes."
"Andreas became a member of the club as a youth to fulfil his dream of flying," the LSC club said in a death notice on its website.
"He fulfilled his dream, the dream he now paid for so dearly with his life," the club said, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Montabaur city mayor Gabriele Wieland, speaking to the DPA press agency, said Lubitz lived with his parents in Montabaur and also had a residence in Dusseldorf, where the Germanwings flight was heading before it crashed.
French authorities said his family had left Marseille, where a press conference was held earlier on 26 March. His Facebook page lists his interests as aviation and music.
Information from the black box recorder of the flight, which crashed on 24 March and killed 150 people, indicated Lubitz was alone in the cockpit, and intentionally started a descent while the other co-pilot was locked out.
The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf hit a mountain near Barcelonette in the French Alps, after an eight-minute descent.
IOW, he died doing what he loved to do.
How nice.
Very possibly a terrorist (using he current definition of the word) but not necessarily.See Post #15.
You could be right, but even in the world of psycho serial killers, this would be extremely out of the ordinary. Serial killers generally want to get their hands dirty, not sit in what amounts to a separate room while all his victims are elsewhere. They didn't even know they were in danger until the final seconds.
He could be crazy, but I still suspect a political motive and Islam is the dominant political movement that uses these tactics. We'll learn more in the coming days.
Really! Isn’t that what we all wish for, to die doing what we love?
The man was a terrorist.
That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering.
I just had a weird thought.
What if Andreas Lubitz’s body is found in a dumpster somewhere in Germany?
Yes. I know it well. Good eye!
In Barcelona more likely
Found the original & it is.
That would be an interesting twist. It is possible that he wasn’t who they think he is. We’ll learn that too in the days ahead, like if the pilot or any of the other airport or airline personnel knew Andreas Lubitz personally before the flight.
Did he lock the door as a matter of training? Is it possible he had a medical issue?
He’s Caucasian how us that “muzzie” ?
That is a genuinely weird thought. Tin hats anyone? Not to say it couldn’t be true.
Did he lock the door as a matter of training? Is it possible he had a medical issue?
But was he, perhaps, Moslem?
Why was his family in Marseille? That is practically a muslim enclave in France these days. This is a red flag.
True, true, true and true. On all counts.
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