Co-pilot accelerated plane on descent
PARIS — The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight repeatedly sped up the plane as he used the automatic pilot to descend the A320 into the Alps, the French air accident investigation agency said today.
The chilling new detail from the BEA is based on an initial reading of the plane’s “black box” data recorder, found blackened and buried at the crash site Thursday.
It strengthens investigators’ initial suspicions that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally destroyed the plane. All 150 people aboard Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were killed in the crash.
The BEA said the preliminary reading of the data recorder shows the pilot used the automatic pilot to put the plane into a descent and then repeatedly during the descent adjusted the automatic pilot to speed up the plane.
