Pilot Attempted To Access Cockpit With Ax Prior To Germanwings Doomed Plane Crash

The accounts are building to show the sheer terror that the passengers experienced prior to the horrific crash of the Germanwings Flight 9525 in the French Alps. The pilot desperately attempted to access the cockpit and override the lockout methods that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz set in motion to regain control of Airbus A320 and its 150 passengers and crew, according to the Washington Post.

According to French investigators, cited by a private television channel in France, it was reported that the pilot, in a desperate, final attempt to save the doomed lives, grabbed an ax, attempting to break through the cockpit door. According to the Washington Post, he was heard yelling at Lubitz to open the door.

“Andreas, open that door! Open that door!”

But, of course, the cries fell on deaf ears, as Lubitz apparently had no intention of sparing the innocent lives about to plunge to their deaths. Lubitz reportedly planned the horrific end that occurred. He had informed an ex-girlfriend that he was planning a large gesture for which he would be remembered, as reported in the Washington Post.

According to the Telegraph, prosecutors indicated that he had illnesses that he hid from his employer, even on the day of the crash.

“Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors. The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues.”

According to an Inquisitr article, Andreas Lubitz had fits of depression and had received treatment for mental illness, and failed to disclose his recent doctors’ notes to his employer. He also informed a former girlfriend that “all will know my name and remember it,” which didn’t make sense to her at the time.

An ax is a customary part of the safety equipment aboard the Airbus A320, sometimes used to open gaps in walls to extinguish fires. Unfortunately, since the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers, cockpit doors are almost impenetrable. They are now almost combat strength with complex locking systems and reinforced materials that can include Kevlar and a fibre-weave built to resist gunfire, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.

In an A320 Airbus, although an ax is part of customary equipment, it’s usually located inside the cockpit, pilots familiar with the aircraft noted. So it’s unclear how this pilot had access to the ax.

French prosecutors indicated that the cockpit flight recorder was interspersed with progressively frantic banging on the door to gain access to the cockpit’s controls, counterposed by the eerily calm breathing by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who apparently set the plane on its deadly descent.

Because of the staggering, unnecessary loss of lives in the Germanwings plane crash, airlines around the globe, including Lufthansa, are changing their rules and protocols and are now requiring two crew members in the cockpit at all times.

[Photos Courtesy of The Washington Post]