nbcnews | The co-pilot of the crashed
Germanwings plane appears to have "intentionally" brought the plane down
while his captain was locked out of the cockpit and banging to be let
back in, prosecutors said Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said the revelations added a "new, simply incomprehensible
dimension" to the tragedy, adding that "something like this goes beyond
anything we can imagine."
First Officer Andreas
Lubitz, 27, was alone at the controls of the Airbus A320 as it began its
rapid descent, Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin told a news conference.
Passengers' cries were
heard on the plane's cockpit voice recorder in the moments just before
the plane slammed into the French Alps, Brice said.
"Banging" sounds also
were audible, he said, suggesting the captain was trying to force his
way back into the cockpit. However, the reinforced cockpit door was
locked from the inside and could not be overridden, even with a coded
entry panel.
"If he had been able to open this door, the captain would have done it," Brice said.
Lubitz, a German
national from the town of Montabaur, "didn't say a word" during the
descent, according to Brice, who said no distress signal or radio call
was made.
"There was no reason to
put the plane into a descent, nor to not respond to… air traffic
controllers," he said. "Was it suicide? I'm not using the word, I don't
know. Given the information I have at this time … I can tell you that he
deliberately made possible the loss of altitude of the aircraft."
