One of the pilots on the ill-fated Germanwings flight was locked out of the cockpit and tried to “smash the door down” before the jet’s inexplicable descent into the French Alps, it was revealed on Wednesday.
The pilot exited the cockpit during the flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf and could not get back inside despite desperately pounding on the door, according to The New York Times.
“The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer,” an investigator said. “And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer.”
The information came from crucial cockpit audio recordings from the doomed jetliner on which all 150 people aboard perished.
The audio gave some indication about what may have happened during the final minutes of the Germanwings flight, but still left a cloud of mystery surrounding the tragedy.
Part of the mystery is why no Mayday call was made by the pilots before their jet suddenly went into its rapid, eight-minute descent.
Investigators were also trying to figure out why the pilot exited the cockpit.
“We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out,” an official told The Times. “But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.”
The revelation was an eerie reminder of EgyptAir Flight 990 in 1999, when co-pilot Gamil el-Batouty deliberately crashed after departing JFK Airport in a deranged act of revenge.
In the EgyptAir flight recording, pilot Ahmed Mahmoud El Habashy was apparently locked out of the cockpit and could be heard pounding on the door and saying, “What’s happening, Gamil?” while el-Batouty repeatedly replied, “I rely on God.”
Authorities in the Germanwings investigation are focusing on a key couple of minutes — 10:30 to 10:32 a.m. — when the crew lost radio contact.
The Airbus 320 crashed about 25 minutes later, leaving debris scattered across the rugged terrain about 6,550 feet above sea level.
French officials said terrorism appeared unlikely, and Germany’s top security official said Wednesday there was no evidence of foul play.
Remi Jouty, head of the French aviation investigation agency, said the plane was flying “until the end” before it smashed into the mountainside, far below its previous cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.
He said the final communication from the plane was a routine message about permission to continue on its route.
Helicopters surveying the plane’s scattered debris lifted off at daybreak for a look at the craggy ravine while emergency crews hiked through snow and rain over the steep, rocky terrain to the high-altitude crash site.
The crash left pieces of wreckage “so small and shiny they appear like patches of snow on the mountainside,” Pierre-Henry Brandet, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said after flying over the debris field.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, himself a pilot, said he found the crash of a plane piloted by two experienced captains “inexplicable.”
“You’re usually dealing with a jigsaw puzzle with many of the pieces missing,” he said. “You start eliminating things that didn’t happen.”
Lufthansa said two charter flights to France will be made available for family members who want to get as close as they can to the crash site. Locals in Seyne-les-Alpes offered to host the bereaved families due to a shortage of rooms to rent.
Germanwings canceled several flights Wednesday because some crews declared themselves too upset to fly after losing six colleagues.
“The management completely understands this, because we are a small family. Everyone knows everybody inside Germanwings, so it is a big shock for employees,” said CEO Thomas Winkelmann.
With Post Wires