Co-pilot of ill-fated Germanwings flight wanted to crash plane

The co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps, named as Andreas Lubitz, appeared to want to "destroy the plane", officials said.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, citing information from the "black box" voice recorder, said the co-pilot was alone in the cockpit. He intentionally started a descent while the pilot was locked out.

Mr Robin said there was "absolute silence in the cockpit" as the pilot fought to re-enter it. He said air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, but to no avail. Passengers could be heard screaming just before the crash, he added.

Details are emerging of the German co-pilot's past - although his apparent motives for causing the crash remain a mystery.

"We hear the pilot ask the co-pilot to take control of the plane and we hear at the same time the sound of a seat moving backwards and the sound of a door closing," Mr Robin told reporters.

He said the pilot, named in the German media as Patrick S, had probably gone to the toilet.

"At that moment, the co-pilot is controlling the plane by himself. While he is alone, the co-pilot presses the buttons of the flight monitoring system to put into action the descent of the aeroplane."

"He operated this button for a reason we don't know yet, but it appears that the reason was to destroy this plane."

Mr Lubitz was alive until the final impact, the prosecutor said. Mr Robin said "the most plausible interpretation" was that the co-pilot had deliberately barred the pilot from re-entering the cockpit.

He added that the co-pilot was "not known by us" to have any links to extremism or terrorism.

...BBCNews