Germanwings Flight 9525

Germanwings Flight 9525

D-AIPX, the aircraft involved in the incident, pictured in May 2014
Incident
Date	24 March 2015 (2015-03-24)
Summary	Deliberate crash; under investigation
Site	Prads-Haute-Bléone, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France 44°16′50″N 6°26′20″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A320-200
Operator	Germanwings
Registration	D-AIPX
Flight origin	Barcelona–El Prat Airport, Spain
Destination	Düsseldorf Airport, Germany
Passengers	144
Crew	6
Fatalities	150 (all)
Survivors	0

Germanwings Flight 9525 (4U9525/GWI18G) was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Germanwings—a low-cost airline owned by Lufthansa—from Barcelona–El Prat Airport, Spain, to Düsseldorf Airport, Germany. On 24 March 2015 the aircraft, an Airbus A320-200, crashed 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of Nice, in the French Alps, after a constant descent that began one minute after the last routine contact with air traffic control and shortly after the plane had reached its assigned cruise altitude; investigators believe the crash was intentional. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed.

Crash

Flight Path

•  BCN Barcelona–El Prat Airport
•  XOG Orange-Caritat Air Base

Flight 9525 took off from Runway 07R at Barcelona–El Prat Airport at 10:01:12 CET (09:01.12 UTC) and was due to arrive at Düsseldorf Airport by 11:39 CET (10:39 UTC). The flight's scheduled departure time was 09:35 CET (08:35 UTC).

The Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC), the French civil aviation authority, declared the aircraft in distress after the aircraft's descent and loss of radio contact. The aircraft reached a cruising speed of 430 kn (800 km/h; 490 mph) and flight level 380 (approx. 38,000 ft [12,000 m]) at 10:27 CET. Three minutes later, the aircraft speed increased, reaching 515 kn (954 km/h; 593 mph) after 20 seconds.

According to the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA; English: Bureau of Investigations and Analyses), at 10:30 CET, pilots confirmed instructions from French air traffic control.

At 10:31.02 CET, after crossing the French coast near Toulon, the aircraft made a slight course correction, left its assigned cruising altitude and without approval began a rapid straight-line descent. Radar observed an average descent rate of approximately 17.8 metres per second (3,500 feet per minute). Attempts by French air traffic control to contact the flight on the assigned radio frequency radio link were not answered. A French military Mirage jet was scrambled from the Orange air base to intercept the plane.

Altitude chart (m)

The aircraft speed decreased near end of descent, reducing from 480 to 378 kn (889 to 700 km/h; 552 to 435 mph). The descent from 38,000 feet took about 8 minutes. The aircraft crashed within the territory of the remote commune of Prads-Haute-Bléone, 100 kilometres (62 mi) north-west of Nice. Radar contact was lost at 10:40.47 CET; at the time, the aircraft was flying at an altitude of 6,175 ft (1,882 m).

During the descent, the pilots did not respond to questions from air traffic control, and did not transmit any distress call. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said that contact from the Marseille air traffic control tower was audible on the cockpit voice recorder multiple times. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr stated that the pilot left the cabin for a toilet break and entered his code to open the cockpit door, but the co-pilot disabled access from the cockpit controls. The pilot then proceeded to bang on the door, with no response from the co-pilot. Reuters reported that German aviation law permits pilots to leave the cockpit while the aircraft is cruising. Evidence showed the autopilot was abruptly switched from cruising altitude to 100 ft, which is the lowest setting for the autopilot.

The crash is the deadliest air disaster in France since the crash of Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 in 1981, in which 180 people died, and the third-deadliest in France behind Flight 1308 and Turkish Airlines Flight 981. This was the first major crash of a civil airliner in France since the crash of Air France Flight 4590 on takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2000. The crash is also the first loss of a Lufthansa-owned airliner during the cruising phase of flight.

Crash site

The crash site is within the Massif des Trois-Évêchés, and is close to Mount Cimet, where Air France Flight 178 crashed in 1953.

Police and Sécurité Civile sent helicopters to locate the wreckage. A picture from the accident site was released, with the report that the aircraft had disintegrated, the largest piece of wreckage being "the size of a car". A helicopter landed near the site of the crash and confirmed that there were no survivors. The search and rescue team reported that the debris field is two square kilometres (500 acres) in size. The plane appears not to have deviated from its heading during the descent.

The DGAC has set up temporary flight restrictions in the area surrounding the crash site. The prohibited area was first set on 24 March at 11:47 GMT (12:47 CET); a circle of 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) radius centred at 44°16′50″N 6°26′25″E from FL000 up to FL140. At 13:38 GMT (14:38 CET), a second larger area was added to cover a radius of 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) centred at 44°16′48″N 6°26′24″E from FL000 to FL100. Entry into the airspace is forbidden, except for state flights or for rescue missions. Rescue efforts were suspended overnight by the French authorities to ensure the safety of the rescuers.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a 24-year-old Airbus A320-211, serial number 147, registered as D-AIPX. It first flew on 29 November 1990, and was delivered to Lufthansa on 5 February 1991. It served with Germanwings for the first time in 2003. It was returned to Lufthansa in 2004 and was re-transferred to the relaunched Germanwings on 31 January 2014. The aircraft had accumulated about 58,300 flight hours on 46,700 flights. The original Design Service Goal (DSG) of the aircraft was 60,000 hours or 48,000 flights. In 2012, an optional Extended Service Goal (ESG1) was approved, extending the service life to 120,000 hours or 60,000 flights, provided that a required package of service and inspections was performed before the DSG was reached.

Passengers and crew

People on board by nationality

Nationality	No.
Germany	70
Spain	51
Argentina	3
Kazakhstan	3
United Kingdom	3
United States	3
Australia	2
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2
Colombia	2
Iran	2
Japan	2
Mexico	2
Morocco	2
Venezuela	2
Belgium	1
Chile	1
Denmark	1
Israel	1
Netherlands	1
Turkey	1
Total number of victims	150
Number of victims with dual citizenships	5

There were 144 passengers and six crew members on board, most of them German and Spanish nationals but from at least 18 nations in total. The count may be confused by dual citizenship. Amongst them were 16 schoolchildren and two teachers from the Joseph-König-Gymnasium of Haltern am See, North Rhine-Westphalia. They were on their way home from a student exchange with the Giola Institute in Llinars del Vallès, Barcelona. Haltern's mayor, Bodo Klimpel, has described it as "the darkest day in the history of our city."

German media identified the captain as Patrick Sondenheimer. Germanwings announced that the captain had 10 years of flying experience (6000 flight hours) with Germanwings and Lufthansa flying A320s, as well as Condor. The first officer was named as Andreas Lubitz. Lufthansa commented that Lubitz took time out from his pilot training in 2009; an acquaintance of Lubitz stated that this was due to having suffered from burnout and depression. He had 630 flight hours of experience before the crash.

The Deutsche Oper am Rhein confirmed that bass-baritone Oleg Bryjak was among the passengers, as was German contralto Maria Radner. Members of the Swedish football team Dalkurd FF were booked to be on the flight but changed at the last moment.

Investigation

The French national civil aviation enquiries bureau, Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA), opened an investigation into the crash, joined by its German counterpart, the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation (BFU). On 24 March, the BEA sent seven investigators to the crash site, accompanied by representatives from Airbus and CFM International. The BEA held a press conference on 25 March from 16:00 to 16:45 UTC.

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was recovered by rescue workers and was examined by the investigation team. The recorder was damaged in the crash, but was still in a usable condition. The BEA released photos of the CVR and was able to extract a voice recording.

The cockpit voice recording revealed that aircraft captain Sondenheimer had been locked out of the cockpit and had been trying to break down the door. He started by knocking lightly and then, getting no response, began hitting the door harder. He also reportedly tried unsuccessfully to break the door down. The CVR records the sound of screaming from the cabin at the end of the flight, following the sounds of increasingly determined efforts to open the door.

On 26 March, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said it appeared that co-pilot Lubitz, a 27-year-old German, crashed the jet deliberately.

When investigators asked Germanwings if another member of the flight crew must be present in the cockpit when one of the pilots leaves, they replied that the company has no such requirement, nor do European regulations.

Marseille prosecutor Robin said that the co-pilot Lubitz's responses, initially courteous in the first part of the trip, became "curt" when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing. Lubitz manually set the plane on the descent that drove it into the mountain.

German prosecutors later announced that police had begun searching Lubitz's home for evidence, including religious ties, although Marseille prosecutor Robin responded to a reporter's question about Lubitz's religious background by stating, "I don't think that's where the answer to this lies".

On 26 March 2015, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation announced it will assist in the crash investigation.

Response

Political

French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve remarked that due to the "violence of the impact" there was "little hope" that any survivors would be found. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he had dispatched Interior Minister Cazeneuve to the scene and set-up a ministerial crisis cell to co-ordinate the response to the incident.

King Philip VI of Spain, in Paris for a state visit to France at the time of the crash, announced his decision to cut his visit short and return to Spain.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she would travel to the crash site on 25 March together with Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hannelore Kraft. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier flew over the crash site on 24 March, describing it as "a picture of horror".

Merkel, French Prime Minister Valls, and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy visited the recovery operations base at Seyne-les-Alpes on 25 March.

Industrial

Several Germanwings flights were cancelled on 24–25 March, which the pilots' union says was due to grief at the loss of their colleagues.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr visited the crash location on 25 March, and afterwards said that this is "the darkest day for Lufthansa in its 60-year history".

On 25 March, Germanwings retired the flight number 4U9525, changing it to 4U9441. The outbound flight number was also changed: from 4U9524 to 4U9440. The flight numbers for the later Düsseldorf to Barcelona flight remain unchanged.

Following the accident, some airlines have announced they now require two people to be on the flightdeck at all times for safety reasons. These include Air Canada, Easyjet and Norwegian Air Shuttle.

See also

• Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320 family
• Air safety
• List of accidents and incidents involving airliners by location § France
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• List of suspected murder suicide incidents involving commercial aircraft
• Suicide by pilot
• Suicide airliner accidents and incidents

Specific incidents

• EgyptAir Flight 990
• Federal Express Flight 705
• Japan Airlines Flight 350.
• LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470
• Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
• Pacific Air Lines Flight 773
• Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771
• Royal Air Maroc Flight 630
• SilkAir Flight 185

External links

• "Accident to the Airbus A320-211 registered D-AIPX, flight GWI18G, on 24 March 2015" (Archive) - Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
• Statement by Germanwings
• List of aircraft accidents and incidents intentionally caused by pilots on the Aviation safety network website