Second Germanwings black box found

French prosecutors have confirmed that the second black box from the Germanwings flight 4U9525 has been found. Authorities hope to find more clues about the plane crash in the French Alps.

Deutsche Welle, 2 April 2015

After the first voice recorder suggested that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately locked the plane on a collision course with the mountains, the second black could provide more information about the Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps last week, French prosecutor Brice Robin told reporters in Marseille on Thursday.

Brice Robin

The voice recorder with the conversations between Lubitz and the pilot had been found shortly after the crash on March 24. German co-pilot took the advantage of the captain's absence to lock him out and set the plane on a deadly descent into the Alps.

The Marseille prosecutor in charge of the case, declined to give any further comment, but said he was planning a press conference for later on Thursday.

The Flight data in the second black box contain readings from hundreds of parameters of the Airbus aircraft including any pilot commands.

French search teams were also examining cell phones found in the debris of the plane crash for more clues about the tragedy. However, no video or audio from such devices has been released publicly.

The Germanwings flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed into the mountains at a speed of 700 kilometres (430 miles) an hour, killing all 150 people on board.

Co-pilot studied suicide methods on internet

Meanwhile, German state prosecutors said a computer seized from 27-year-old co-pilot's home showed searches had been made on cockpit doors and their safety precautions as well as suicide methods.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz

"On at least one day, the person also spent several minutes trying out search terms for cockpit doors and their security protection," German prosecutor Ralf Herrenbrueck said.

"The browser history wasn't erased, in particular the search terms called up on this device in the period from March 16 to March 23 were able to be retraced," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Lubitz's tablet computer was found in a search of his flat in Düsseldorf.

German prosecutors have said Lubitz was diagnosed as suicidal "several years ago," before he became a pilot. He informed Lufthansa about his illness in 2009 after interrupting his flight training.

Two days after the crash, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said Lubitz had passed all medical and psychological tests to obtain a student pilot certificate including the one from the US Federal Aviation Authority in 2010.

jil/rc (dpa, AFP)

'Space Silk Road' to back China's Belt and Road plan

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-02

The new Beidou satellite is launched into space carried by
a Long March 3 orbital carrier rocket, March 30. (Photo/CNS)

At 9 pm on March 30, China successfully launched the Long March 3 (LM-3) orbital carrier rocket, carrying the first of China's new generation Beidou satellites, set to transform the Beidou satellite navigation system from a regional to an international guidance system, according to the Chinese-language website of China's Global Times.

On March 31 the China Satellite Global Services Alliance (CSGSA) held a press conference in Beijing, announcing the latest stage in the construction of a "Space-based New Silk Road." They stated that it will enable the smooth development of China's "Belt and Road" plan–comprising the New Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Space-based Silk Road

The deputy director general of the alliance in charge of daily operations, Wang Zhongguo, said at the press conference that at the end of 2014, the alliance decided to focus its strategy on the Belt and Road project and international expansion. Currently the alliance has established trial satellite receiving bases in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Hainan and Fujian, all important locations for the Belt and Road projects. After this it will move westwards over land, through Central Asia and Southwest Asia to Europe and over sea through the South China Sea, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean to Africa and South and Central America, establishing receiving stations all over the world.

The alliance is said to be an open interdisciplinary non-profit NGO, with members including the management of companies throughout the astronautical industry chain, research institute staff and academics.

Wang said that the alliance has entered into talks with a range of countries, including Malta, Malaysia, India, the US and Norway regarding establishing satellite receiving facilities within their borders. Satellite cooperation with Malta has already been incorporated into the country's trade treaty with China. He said that as well as the construction of new receiving stations, already established receiving stations can be used too. The Chinese University of Hong Kong previously built a ground receiving station, which will be able to receive signals from Chinese satellites, which it can then use to provide services to the public.

If the Space-based Silk Road is to be realized then the building of related infrastructure must be prioritized as a central project, he said. This can be done by improving the communications infrastructure within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SHO). Joint funds can be used to establish a low orbit data acquisition satellite system, improve the coverage of navigation along the Belt and Road routes and to build a remote sensing Virtual Constellation. Ground infrastructure must also be jointly constructed, including facilities for the receiving, processing and distribution of satellite information.

Satellites

Wang said that China currently has 120 satellites in orbit and that its communications satellites can provide coverage for 98% of the world's inhabited areas; China's remote-sensing satellites can also provide global coverage. The recently launched new generation Beidou navigation satellite brings the number of Beidou satellites to 17. The Beidou system is expected to have global coverage by 2020.

The Space-based Silk Road will comprise several dozen high capacity communications satellites, offering broad coverage, and these will be used as a supplement for data acquisition satellite systems. They are also expected to improve navigation services along the Belt and Road routes. The remote-sensing satellites will also engage in long term observation of land masses, the oceans, the atmosphere and environmental changes.

When asked if the Gaofen series of satellites would be incorporated into the Space-based Silk Road satellite system, Wang said that this would depend on the demands of the owners, as most were commissioned by businesses.

Wu Jiyun, vice director of the Satellite Technology Application Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, says that currently Beidou is second only to the US GPS navigation system. He added that Beidou's accuracy is already a match for GPS in the Pacific and that China intends for it to match GPS's capabilities worldwide by 2020.

Belt and Road

The Space-based Silk Road will enable the Chinese government to continue observing different regions of the world even in the event of a natural disaster or other unforeseen circumstances. The system is also likely to help Chinese businesses expand internationally and it can act as a scout for infrastructure construction along the land and sea routes.

China accelerates westward opening for Silk Road Economic Belt

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-04-01

A train enters China through the Alataw Pass, June 26, 2014. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Alataw Pass, a remotely-located port in the Gobi desert of Xinjiang, is becoming an increasingly important trade gateway connecting China's inland cities to Central Asia and Europe.

Dozens of international trains are running to and from the port everyday with a total freight volume of 74,000 tonnes and foreign trade volume of nearly US$50 million. The Alataw Pass has become a key entrance for energy resources of strategic importance such as crude oil, metal ores and steel.

The prosperity of the port is a reflection of China's effort in opening up westward, as part of a strategy to develop the Silk Road Economic Belt that spans the Eurasian continent.

President Xi Jinping proposed the idea of the economic belt during his visit to Central Asia in September 2013, eyeing a cultural revival of the Silk Road, which historically linked China with Central Asia and Europe, as a way of developing political and economic ties.

After the Silk Road Economic Belt agreement was signed in November 2013 by 24 cities in eight countries along the Silk Road, a series of Chinese inland cities including Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Xi'an have successively opened international shuttle trains to the Eurasian continent.

Northwest China's Shaanxi province, the starting point of the ancient silk road, has been carrying out economic and technological cooperation with countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Fang Weifeng, director of the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission, said, the Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group has set up an oil refining program in Kyrgyzstan with an annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes.

Other western provinces and regions have also been extending their reach to the west. Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region vowed to enhance agricultural and energy cooperation with Central Asia. Ningxia Hui autonomous region, heavily populated by the Muslim Hui ethnic minority, has been developing Muslim food and products manufacturing bases with the purpose to promote trade with Muslim countries.

Yang Shu, a professor at Lanzhou University in Gansu province, said speeding up westward expansion is of great strategic importance to China. With international trade shrinking after the global financial crisis, China's economic slowdown is urging the country to further tap the development potential of its west through westward opening.

The campaign can also help bridge the development gap between China's western areas and more prosperous east, he said.

The global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis has hit the economic development of Russia, Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. The economic belt can bring opportunities to those countries, he said.

However, China has to be cautious when deepening cooperation with countries to its west.

Xing Guangcheng, an expert with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China should seek to develop more stakeholders by building joint ventures when initiating programs in the Central Asian countries in order to reduce risks.

Beijing pitches US$5.2bn toward Russia's first high-speed railway

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-01

Two high-speed locomotives in a hangar in Guiyang, Guizhou province.
(File photo/CNS)

Beijing plans to invest 300 billion Russian rubles (US$5.2 billion) to build Russia's first high-speed rail line between Moscow and Kazan, reports the Xinhua publication Reference News.

China reportedly proposed the investment to Alexander Misharin, first vice president of Russian Railways, in a meeting during the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan. Chinese officials suggested the two countries form a joint venture for the rail line, each taking a 50% stake.

Around 50 billion rubles (US$860 million) of the investment will be equity payment made by the Chinese company responsible for the project. Chinese banks will lend the remaining 250 billion rubles (US$4.3 billion) to Russia for 20 years.

The 770km-long rail line linking five regions in Russia — Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary and Kazan — would reduce the travel time from 11 and half hours to around three and a half. Many European and Chinese companies have shown interest in the project.

Yuanzheng-1 'space shuttle bus' enters orbit for first time

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-31

Concept art of the Yuanzheng-1 shuttle. (Internet photo)

China's Yuanzheng-1 ("Expedition") upper stage aircraft with the ability to launch more than 10 satellites went into orbit on March 30, the Global Times reports.

Yuanzheng-1 is one of the 40 spacecraft China plans to send into orbit in 20 separate launches in 2015, as declared during the annual meetings of the country's parliament and political advisory body earlier this month. The UK's Daily Mail described it as China's largest rocket which can restart its engine in space about 20 times. It can launch more than 10 satellites during the course of its mission.

Liang Xiaohong, party secretary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said the carrier rocket bearing Yuanzheng-1 can carry aircraft using its own power system after reaching an initial orbit. Using liquid propellant, Yuanzheng-1 can be operated for up to 6.5 hours in space.

Liang said the spacecraft will play an important role in China's future lunar and Mars missions as well as orbital transfer and space debris clearing.

Referred to as the "space shuttle bus" by various media, the first mission of Yuanzheng-1 is likely to be to launch satellites for China's Beidou Navigation System. Earlier reports suggest China plans to launch four Beidou satellites this year.

MH17 investigators launch appeal for witnesses, release BUK footage

DutchNews.nl, March 30, 2015

Dutch investigators looking into the MH17plane disaster on July 17, 2014 on Monday launched an appeal for help in tracing witnesses to a possible BUK missile attack on the plane. 

The appeal includes video footage showing a BUK missile system being moved through eastern Ukraine on a low loader Volvo truck on July 17 and 18 and parts of secretly recorded phone conversations, the public prosecution department, which is coordinating the investigation, said.

‘We are looking for witnesses who have seen BUK crew members or have more information about the identity of those involved in ordering and launching the BUK,’ the statement said. People who are concerned about their safety will be offered ‘various protective measures.’ 

Tapped phone conversations indicate pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine had set up BUK anti-aircraft missiles prior to the MH17 plane crash and that the rebels withdrew in the wake of the crash, first to rebel-held parts of Ukraine and then to Russia, the department said. 

The phone conversations, recorded by the Ukrainian secret service SBU, have been released in order to encourage witnesses to come forward. 

Total mess

‘Yesterday was a total mess. I have nothing to say about it,’ one separatist was recorded as saying the day after MH17 was shot down, killing all 298 people on board. 

Two of the conversations mention the weapons system by name and discuss where it is to be placed. 

The appeal for witnesses does not mean the department has concluded a missile attack is the only likely cause of the crash and is just one of number of scenarios being looked at, the department statement said.

Related Article:

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Aug 3, 2014) - (MH17)

Alps crash captain shouted 'open the damn door'

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)

German prosecutors believe Lubitz hid an illness from his airline but have not specified the ailment, and said he had apparently been written off sick on the day the Airbus crashed.

'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)

If Lubitz did deliberately crash the plane, it was "because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa, of a job as captain and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible", the woman told Bild.

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.

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.

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".

Related Article:

Germanwings crash co-pilot hid illness from airline

US and Russian astronauts successfully dock at International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The scientists' stay on board the ISS will be the longest ever.

Deutsche Welle, 28 March 2015

According to Russian space agency officials, the trio successfully docked the Soyuz-TMA16M spacecraft at 01:33 a.m. (UTC) on Saturday after setting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:42 p.m. (UTC) on Friday.

US astronaut Scott Kelly, 51, and 54-year-old Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend 342 days on board the 400-kilometer high (250-mile) orbiting outpost.

Longest stay

Kelly and Kornienko, both of whom have flown multiple missions to orbit and have each previously spent about six months on the ISS, will be the first people to spend almost an entire year there.

Second Russian cosmonaut, Gennady Padalka, will return to Earth after six months, however.

The trip will mark the longest amount of time that two people will live continuously on the ISS. During the 1990s, however, four Russian cosmonauts spent between 12 and 14 months aboard the Russian space station Mir.

Mission to Mars

The aim of the time spent onboard the ISS is to enable scientists to gain a wider understanding of the effects on the human body of living in microgravity for longer time periods.

Kelly's twin brother Mark is also taking part in the experiment. The retired US astronaut, who previously flew to the ISS four times, will undergo regular health checks on Earth so doctors can compare the brothers' vital signs.

Space tourism

Speaking ahead of Friday's launch, Kelly said the experiment could prove vital in planning future international missions, including to Mars.

"If we ever go beyond Low Earth orbit again, perhaps to Mars, because of the cost and the complexity it will most likely be an international mission, so I see this as a stepping stone to that."

The US astronaut also said he thought the international partnership was "one of the great success stories of the International Space Station."

In September, the newly-arrived crew will also have a visit from the first space tourist since 2009, British soprano Sarah Brightman. The Phantom of the Opera star who has be training at Star City near Moscow since January is set to sing a new song in space, written by her former husband and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

ksb/bk (dpa, AFP)

Germanwings crash co-pilot hid illness from airline

Yahoo – AFP, Celine Jankowiak with Deborah Cole in Berlin, 27 March 2015

French gendarmes and investigators sift through the scattered debris on March 26, 

2015 at the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 in the French Alps above

the southeastern town of Seyne (AFP Photo/Anne-Christine Poujoulat)

The black box voice recorder indicates that Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out of the cockpit on Tuesday and deliberately flew Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside, French officials say, in what appears to have been a case of suicide and mass murder.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that "everything is pointing towards an act that we can't describe: criminal, crazy, suicidal".

German prosecutors revealed 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".

A police officer pictured outside the apartment 

of Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the crashed

 Germanwings plane, in Duesseldorf, western

 Germany, on March 26, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Federico Gambarini)

They did not specify the illness.

But Bild daily earlier reported that Lubitz sought psychiatric help for "a bout of serious depression" in 2009 and was still getting assistance from doctors, quoting documents from Germany's air transport regulator.

The paper also cited security sources as saying that Lubitz and his girlfriend were having a "serious crisis in their relationship" that left him distraught.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr 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.

According to Bild, those setbacks were linked to "depression and anxiety attacks".

Lubitz lived with his parents in his small home town of Montabaur in the Rhineland and kept an apartment in Duesseldorf, the city where his doomed plane was bound.

Duesseldorf prosecutors said the evidence found in the two homes "backs up the suspicion" that Lubitz "hid his illness from his employer and his colleagues".

They said they had not found a suicide note, confession or anything pointing to a "political or religious" motive but added it would take "several days" to evaluate the rest of what was collected.

Reiner Kemmler, a psychologist who specialises in training pilots, noted that people "know that depression can compromise their airworthiness and they can hide it".

"If someone dissimulates, ie they don't want other people to notice, it's very, very difficult," Kemmler told Deutschlandfunk public radio.

Desperate captain used 'axe'

Lubitz locked himself into the cockpit when the captain went out to use the toilet, then refused his colleague's increasingly desperate attempts to get him to reopen the door, French prosecutor Brice Robin said.

According to Bild, the captain even tried using an axe to break through the armoured door as the plane was sent into its fatal descent by Lubitz.

This could not be immediately confirmed, but a spokesman for Germanwings told Bild that an axe was standard emergency equipment on board the aircraft.

A policeman stands next to a police car in

 front of a house in Duesseldorf, western 

Germany, on March 26, 2015, during the

 investigation into the Germanwings 

plane crash over the French Alps 

(AFP Photo/David Young)

The tragedy has already prompted a shake-up of safety rules, with several airlines announcing a new policy requiring there always be two people in the cockpit.

German aviation industry body BDL and the transport ministry agreed to the rule for Lufthansa, its subsidiary Germanwings and other companies, while the European Aviation Security Agency threw its weight behind the policy.

Meanwhile, the UN world aviation body stressed that all pilots must have regular mental and physical check-ups.

'Unimaginable'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the findings that Lubitz appeared intent on crashing the plane added an "absolutely unimaginable dimension" to the tragedy, in which most victims were German and Spanish nationals.

In the northwestern town of Haltern, which lost 16 students and two teachers who were returning from a school exchange, the revelations prompted shock and rage.

The principal of the stricken school, Ulrich Wessel, said "what makes all of us so angry (is) that a suicide can lead to the deaths of 149 other people".

German President Joachim Gauck, a Protestant pastor, attended a memorial service in Haltern Friday and also extended special condolences to the families of the victims in Spain and other countries.

Meanwhile in Montabaur, Mayor Edmund Schaaf urged reporters encamped in the community to show restraint with Lubitz's parents, a banker and a church organist, who live in a handsome home on a leafy, normally quiet street.

"Regardless of whether the accusations against the co-pilot are true, we sympathise with his family and ask the media to be considerate," he said.

A French gendarmerie helicopter winches up an investigator on March 26, 2015 near
scattered debris on the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 in the French
Alps above the southeastern town of Seyne (AFP Photo/Anne-Christine Poujoulat)

Descent button

Investigators say Lubitz's intention was clear because he operated a button sending the plane into a plunge.

For the next eight minutes, Lubitz was apparently calm and breathing normally.

"He does not say a single word. Total silence," Robin said.

The second-in-command had all psychological tests required for training, Lufthansa's Spohr told reporters Thursday, insisting: "He was 100-percent airworthy."

Recovery operations at the crash site were ongoing, with French officials trying to find body parts and evidence. A second black box, which records flight data, has not yet been recovered.

"There's not much plane debris left. There's mainly a lot of body parts to pick up. The operation could last another two weeks," said police spokesman Xavier Vialenc.

Related Articles:

Psych meds found at home of Germanwings co-pilot: media reports
Police search home of Andreas Lubitz, Germanwings co-pilot behind crash

Russian air controllers charged for Polish presidential jet disaster

Yahoo – AFP, 27 March 2015

The Polish government Tupolev Tu-154 went down in thick fog while approaching
 Smolensk airport in western Russia killing 96, including then president Lech
Kaczynski, his wife, the central bank head and military chief of staff among
others (AFP Photo/Natalia Kolesnikova)

Warsaw (AFP) - Pilot error was to blame for the 2010 crash of a Polish presidential jet in Russia, but two Russian air traffic controllers also triggered the disaster that killed Poland's then head of state, prosecutors in Warsaw said Friday.

The aircraft went down in thick fog while approaching Smolensk airport in western Russia killing 96, including then president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, the central bank head and military chief of staff among others.

One of the Russian controllers charged with "being directly responsible for having endangered air traffic... while the other is charged with unintentionally causing an air traffic disaster," Warsaw's chief military prosecutor Ireneusz Szelag told reporters.

He said Poland would take steps to bring the two unnamed Russian citizens to justice, but declined to provide any further details.

The prosecutor presented a minute-by-minute expert analysis of the events leading up to the crash, regarded as Poland's worst peacetime disaster.

Russia has so far refused to hand over the plane's wreckage to Polish authorities, insisting its investigation into the disaster is ongoing.

Warsaw has extended its investigation until October 10.

Many high-profile Poles died when the Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 airliner went down in thick fog April 10, 2010, while approaching Smolensk airport in western Russia.

The delegation was en route to memorial ceremonies in Katyn for thousands of Polish army officers slain by the Soviet secret police in 1940, a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.

Pilot locked out of cockpit before mystery French Alps crash

Yahoo – AFP, Marc Burleigh and Delphine Touitou in Paris, 26 March 2015

A French Gendarmeri helicopter flies over an air base in Seyne-les-Alpes on 

March 26, 2015 as the search operation following the Germanwings plane crash

resumes (AFP Photo/Boris Horvat)

Seyne-les-Alpes (France) (AFP) - One of the pilots on the doomed Germanwings flight was locked out of the cockpit shortly before the plane crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, a source told AFP, raising new questions for investigators trying to make sense of the tragedy.

The news came as families and friends of victims began arriving in France to travel to the remote mountainous crash site area, where locals have opened their doors in a show of solidarity with the grieving relatives.

Cockpit recordings from one of the plane's black boxes indicated that a seat was pushed back, then the door opened and closed. Later, knocking is heard, said the source close to the probe, adding "there was no more conversation from that point until the crash".

Buses carrying family members of the 

victims of the Germanwings plane crash

 are escorted by police in Marignane on

 March 26, 2015 before heading to the

 area of the crash in the Alps (AFP 

Photo/Franck Pennant)

The source, who asked not to be identified, said an alarm indicating proximity to the ground could be heard before the moment of impact.

All 150 people on board flight 4U 9525, including two babies and 16 German school exchange pupils, died when the Airbus A320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf smashed into the mountains after an eight-minute descent.

There was no distress signal from the plane and the crew failed to respond to ground control's desperate attempts to make contact.

The cockpit recording showed the pilots speaking normally in German at the start of the flight, the source said, adding that it could not be determined if it was the captain or the first officer who left the cockpit. A second black box, which records flight data, has not yet been recovered.

The New York Times cited a senior military official involved in the investigation as saying the cockpit black box recording indicated one pilot tried unsuccessfully to bash his way back in to the cockpit.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer," the investigator told the newspaper. "And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer."

He continued: "You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."

'Unconscious or dead'

Germanwings told AFP: "Only a pilot inside the cockpit can unlock the door."

Employees of the German airline Lufthansa

 and subsidiary Germanwings mourn the 

victims of the Germanwings plane crash 

at Duesseldorf airport on March 26, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Patrik Stollarz)

But its spokesperson refused to either confirm or deny "for security reasons" whether there was any way to open the door from outside, perhaps with an access code.

They confirmed the existence of a video surveillance system that allows the pilot to see who is trying to enter the cockpit.

Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa said the co-pilot had been working for them since September 2013 and had 630 hours of flight experience. The pilot had more than 10 years experience and 6,000 hours flying time.

However, neither pilot has been identified yet.

Authorities say the plane was flying right until the moment of impact and that there was no mid-air explosion.

The French interior minister has said that terrorism is not considered likely. However, aviation experts say the mystery remains wide open.

"If the pilots did not stop the airplane from flying into the mountains, it is because they were unconscious or dead, or they had decided to die, or they were forced to die," one expert told AFP.

Debris from the Germanwings Airbus A320
is seen strewn over the crash site in the
 French Alps above the southeastern
 town of Seyne-les-Alps (AFP Photo)

Earlier, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr called the incident "inexplicable".

"The plane was in perfect condition and the two pilots were experienced," he said.

The prosecutor for the southern city of Marseille, who is leading the judicial enquiry, was due to brief reporters at 12:30 pm (1130 GMT).

Grieving families gather

Meanwhile, two planes arrived in southern France on Thursday from Barcelona and Duesseldorf with families and friends of victims.

They were due to meet the prosecutor before heading by bus to the hamlet close to the crash site.

Tents were set up for them to give DNA samples to start the process of identifying the bodies of loved ones, at least 51 of whom were Spaniards and at least 72 Germans.

The remains of victims, found scattered across the scree-covered slopes, were being taken by helicopter to nearby Seyne-les-Alpes, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

A mountain guide who got near the crash site said he was unable to make out recognisable body parts.

A member of the French Red Cross waits

 to greet the families of victims of the 

Germanwings Airbus A320 at a support 

centre set up in Digne-les-Bains on March

25, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)

"It's incredible. An Airbus is enormous. When you arrive and there's nothing there... it's very shocking," said the guide, who did not wish to be identified.

The crash site, which is situated at about 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) altitude, is accessible only by helicopter or an arduous hike on foot.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew over the site to see the devastation for themselves Wednesday. Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also visited a crisis centre near the scene.

It was the deadliest air crash on the French mainland since 1974 when a Turkish Airlines plane crashed, killing 346 people.

Lufthansa said the aircraft was carrying citizens of 18 countries. Three Americans and three Britons were confirmed among the victims.

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Holland, Israel, Japan, Mexico and Morocco also had nationals on board, according to officials.

Related Articles:

Germanwings crash co-pilot hid illness from airline
Police search home of Andreas Lubitz, Germanwings co-pilot behind crash