On March 25, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 plummeted into the French Alps en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. Days later in the devastating wreckage, a “black box” from the plane was recovered. This provided the world with cockpit voice recordings that could hopefully answer the countless questions about the exact occurrences leading to an alleged mass murder of over 150 people at the hands of a mentally ill co-pilot.
- 10:01AM – Flight 9525 takes off (20 minutes later than the scheduled time) from the El Prat Airport in Barcelona, Spain.
- 10:27AM – The plane reaches a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz tells Captain Patrick Sondenheimer, “You can go now,” referring to using the bathroom, since Sondenheimer didn’t get the chance to do so before takeoff due to the delay. Sondenheimer responds, “You can take over,” to Lubitz and is heard pushing his seat backwards to exit the cockpit.
- 10:29AM – The plane begins to descend.
- 10:32AM – Air traffic controllers attempt to contact the plane but receive no answer. The “sink rate” alarm goes off in the cockpit.
- 10:35AM – There are several loud bangs on the door to the cockpit and Sondenheimer screams, “For God’s sake, open the door!” Passengers scream in the background. The plane is now at 23,000 feet.
- 10:37AM – The plane hits 16,400 feet and another alarm goes off, saying “Terrain–pull up!” The captain screams, “Open the damn door!”
- 10:38AM – Lubitz is heard breathing heavily. At 13,100 feet the plane is in full descent towards the French Alps.
- 10:40AM – The plane’s right wing scrapes a mountain and passengers scream in the background. This is the end of the black box recording.
- 11:39AM – Flight 9525 was scheduled to land at the Düsseldorf Airport. It never did.
The investigation about co-pilot Lubitz’s motives continues, but it has been confirmed that he suffered from depression and was declared mentally unfit to be flying planes, revealed from torn-up sick notes in his house from his doctor. Furthermore, he had significantly deficient vision and could, therefore, never achieve the status of captain. The families of the 150 passengers grieve as they hope for more answers and for bodies to be recovered from the wreckage.