The co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps on Tuesday and left no survivors deliberately drove the plane to its destruction, French officials said Thursday.
Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, took control of the aircraft, refused to let the pilot into the cockpit and switched the plane into descent mode before crashing into the mountainside, killing all 150 people onboard, French prosecutor Brice Robin said, according to Reuters.
What began as a probe into a possible mechanical malfunction has switched into an investigation into the 28-year-old pilot, who joined Germanwings, a budget airline owned by Lufthansa, in September 2013. Initial findings suggest it was not a terror attack.
Voice recorders recovered from the Airbus A320 that took off from Barcelona reveal what happened during the flight's last minutes, Robin said, according to Reuters.
Conversations between Lubitz and the pilot, who has not been identified, started out as normal. But Lubitz's responses soon became "laconic" as the pilot announced they were preparing to land at their destination in Dusseldorf, Germany. The pilot exited the cockpit, leaving Lubitz alone.
"It is when he is alone that the co-pilot manipulates the flight monitoring system to activate the descent of the plane," Robin said, The New York Times reported. The prosecutor said this action can only be described as "voluntary."
The pilot returned to find he was locked out of the cockpit.
"You can hear the commanding pilot ask for access to the cockpit several times," the prosecutor said. "He identifies himself, but the co-pilot does not provide any answer. You can hear human breathing in the cockpit up until the moment of impact."
Officials said the recordings suggest the passengers were not aware of what was going on until the very last few minutes, Reuters reported.
"Only towards the end do you hear screams," Robin said. "And bear in mind that death would have been instantaneous...the aircraft was literally smashed to bits."
Lubitz, from the town of Montabaur, had a total of 630 hours of flying time. His Facebook page shows he once visited San Francisco and liked listening to David Guetta. He was not known to law enforcement.
