Yahoo – AFP,
Kate Millar, 29 March 2015
 |
Police vans
block the view as Japanese victims pay their respects on
March 29, 2015 near a
commemorative headstone in Seyne-les-Alpes, the
closest accessible area to
where a Germanwings flight crashed in the
French Alps (AFP Photo/Jean-Pierre
Clatot)
|
Berlin
(AFP) - The captain of a passenger jet that investigators believe was
deliberately crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, shouted at
the co-pilot to "open the damn door" as he desperately tried to get
back into the locked cockpit, a German newspaper reported Sunday.
Forensic
teams meanwhile announced that they had isolated 78 distinct DNA strands from
body parts at the mountain crash site with investigators describing the
difficulty of the search as "unprecedented" due to the arduous
terrain.
French
officials say the plane's black box voice recorder indicates that Andreas
Lubitz, 27, locked the captain out of the cockpit of the Germanwings jet and
steered Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside.
 |
Machines
work to make a path up to
the crash site on March 29, 2015 in
Seyne-les-Alpes
(AFP Photo/
Jean-Pierre Clatot)
|
They
believe that the more senior pilot, identified by Germany's Bild newspaper as
Patrick S., tried desperately to reopen the door during the Barcelona to
Duesseldorf flight's eight-minute descent after he left to use the toilet.
The
mass-circulation paper's Sunday edition reported that data from the cockpit
recorder showed the captain shouted: "For God's sake, open the door",
as passengers' screams could be heard in the background.
It said
"loud metallic blows" against the cockpit door could then be heard,
before another warning alarm went off and then the pilot is heard to scream to
a silent Lubitz in the cockpit "open the damn door".
Investigators
in the Alps said the violence of the impact and the remote location was
severely hampering the search for both body parts and the second "black
box".
"We
haven't found a single body intact," said Patrick Touron, deputy director
of the police's criminal research institute.
"We
have slopes of 40 to 60 degrees, falling rocks, and ground that tends to
crumble," said Touron. "Some things have to be done by
abseiling."
As
investigators seek to build up a picture of Lubitz and any possible motives,
media reports have emerged that he suffered from eye problems, adding to
earlier reports he was severely depressed.
 |
Forensic
experts of the French
gendarmerie disaster victim identification
unit (UGIVC)
work under a tent near
the site of the crash of a Germanwings
Airbus A320 in
which all 150 people on
board were killed (AFP Photo/F.Balamo)
|
'Sight
problem'
The Sunday
edition of Germany's Bild tabloid and the New York Times, which cited two
officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz had sought treatment
for problems with his sight.
It is
thought to be a retinal detachment, the German weekly said.
It also
reported that Lubitz's girlfriend with whom he lived in the western city of
Duesseldorf was believed to be pregnant.
It gave no
sources but said the teacher, who taught maths and English, had told pupils a
few weeks ago she was expecting a baby.
Bild's
Saturday edition had published an interview with a flight attendant who it said
had had a relationship last year with Lubitz and recalled him saying: "One
day I'm going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone
will know my name and remember."
 |
Picture
released on March 27, 2015 shows
the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525
Andreas Lubitz (AFP Photo/Foto
Team Mueller)
|
German
prosecutors revealed Friday that searches of Lubitz's homes netted
"medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate
medical treatment", including "torn-up and current sick leave notes,
among them one covering the day of the crash".
Police have
found a number "of medicines for the treatment of psychological
illness" during a search at his Duesseldorf home, Welt am Sonntag
newspaper said.
It added
that the Germanwings co-pilot was suffering from being overstressed and was
severely depressive, according to personal notes found.
Search
for second black box
French
police investigator Jean-Pierre Michel told AFP Saturday that Lubitz's
personality was a "serious lead" in the inquiry but not the only one.
The
investigation has so far not turned up a "particular element" in the
co-pilot's life which could explain his alleged action, he said.
Germany is to hold a national memorial ceremony on April 17 for the victims of the disaster, half of whom were German, with Spain accounting for at least 50 and the remainder composed of more than a dozen other nationalities.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr has said that Lubitz had suspended his pilot training, which began in 2008, "for a certain period", before restarting and qualifying for the Airbus A320 in 2013.
The second-in-command had passed all psychological tests required for training, Spohr told reporters.
The second-in-command had passed all psychological tests required for training, Spohr told reporters.
 |
Rescuers
stand as relatives of Japanese victims pay their respects to crash
victims, on
March 29, 2015 near a commemorative headstone in
Seyne-les-Alpes (AFP
Photo/Jean-Pierre Clatot)
|
Germany is to hold a national memorial ceremony on April 17 for the victims of the disaster, half of whom were German, with Spain accounting for at least 50 and the remainder composed of more than a dozen other nationalities.
France's
Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA), tasked with investigating civil
aviation accidents, meanwhile said it was "dismayed" by the
revelations in the German press which it said smacked of "voyeurism".
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