Andreas Lubitz, 28, has been identified as the co-pilot of doomed Germanwings Flight 4U9525 that crashed in the French Alps. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday that Lubitz made a “deliberate attempt” to crash the plane.

Andreas Lubitz had 600 hours in flying time for the Airbus A320. The prosecutor said he had all the paperwork in place and was “fully qualified” to fly the plane. He is not on any terror list and they do not know his religion.

Robin revealed that the captain was identified as Stephen S, a father of two. He was deliberately locked out of the cockpit by Lubitz. At that point, Lubitz used the flight monitoring system to put the plane into a descent, which can only be done manually.

At that point, the co-pilot uses the flight monitoring system to put the plane into a descent – something that can only be done manually.

The pilot knocks and asks Lubbitz to let him in and then starts banging furiously when he got no response. Robin said, “His breath was not of somebody who was struggling. He never said a single word. It was total silence in the cockpit for the 10 past minutes.” Robin said, “Alarms were triggered to tell the crew how close the land was” and “then we hear violent blows as to break down the door.”

He added, “I don’t think that the passengers realized what was happening until the last moments because on the recording you only hear screams in the final seconds.” Brice Robin said “death was instantaneous.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.