The co-pilot that deliberately crashed a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps on Tuesday killing all 150 people on board had suffered from depression forcing him to take a break from his training in 2009, it has been revealed.
The news comes after German police said they made a 'significant discovery' during a four-hour search of the home of Andreas Lubitz, amid speculation relationship problems may have been behind his despicable act.
In a press conference French prosecutors revealed more of the terrifying details of events on board the doomed flight in the final minutes before it smashed into a remote French mountainside.
Prosecutor Brice Robin said that the cockpit voice recorder showed that the
conversation between Lubitz and pilot Patrick Sonderheimer was initially polite and courteous, but as the captain began his mid-flight briefing Lubitz became 'curt,' signalling his mind may have been elsewhere.
The captain then handed control of the plane to 28-year old Lubitz, pushed back his chair and left the cockpit, possibly to answer the call of nature.
Returning shortly afterwards, Sonderheimer found himself locked out of the cockpit. His repeated attempts to re-enter the cockpit ignored by Lubitz, who then put the plane into its deadly descent.
The increasingly desperate demands by the captain for Lubitz to open the cockpit door ended with him trying to physically break down the door. By this time warning alarms were sounding inside the cockpit, but Lubitz remained quiet and calm, all the time breathing normally.
By now the passengers begin to realise that the plane was about to crash and began to scream. A few seconds later there was silence.
As the focus fell on the mental state of Lubitz, Germanwings owner Lufthansa defended its procedures, saying Lubitz had passed all required tests and was deemed fit to pilot the aircraft.
The crash has also brought scrutiny on the post 9-11 changes to cockpit's that made them virtually impregnable from the o
