Tragic Plane Crash In French Alps

A Germanwings Airlines flight from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany went down over the French Alps on March 24. Within were 150 passengers, all found dead over the course of the search and rescue operation. The cause of the crash was the young co-pilot, whose history of depression and suicidal inquiries on the internet led to the consensus that he intentionally brought down the plane and killed those on board.

When news of this crash spread, the origin was a mystery; the recordings from the cockpit voice recorder and the psychological background of the co-pilot were yet to be unearthed for several days.

However, they both surfaced in due time. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot, suffered from chronic depression and other mental afflictions. His girlfriend had previously reached out for help with his mental state. Prior to the Germanwings crash, Lubitz searched online for suicide methods and for details about the strength of cockpit doors.

Lubitz used the nearly impenetrable door to keep the pilot from the cockpit by locking it from the inside as he left. Audio was released of the pilot attempting to kick down the door repeatedly as the plane plummeted.

Even more disturbing evidence surfaced that Lubitz may have drugged the pilot’s drink with a diuretic, which would increase his need to urinate and the time he spent away from the controls. Upon coming back to the cockpit door, he was unable to open it because of a feature inside of the cockpit that disables opening it from the outside.

Some have said that this tragedy was preventable; Lubitz was by no means a secretly mentally damaged person. His problems were seen by those around him, and his online searches clearly showed his planned course of action.

Whatever the case, investigation into the event is still ongoing as accident investigators discover more evidence from the plane’s flight data recorder and work to identify the entirety of the victims.