A screen grab taken from a video released by France’s Interior Minister on March 25, 2015, shows debris of the Germanwings Airbus A320 at the crash site in the French Alps above the town of Seyne-les-Alps -© Ministre de l’interieur/AFP/File
PARIS: Investigators believe the co-pilot of a German airliner deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alpse earlier this week, killing all 150 people aboard.
While rare, there have been previous such incidents in which a pilot or co-pilot have brought down an aircraft.
SEYNE: The young co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight appears to have “deliberately” crashed the plane into the French Alps after locking his captain out of the cockpit, but is not believed to be part of a terrorist plot. –© AFP / by Stéphane Koguc
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a statement in commemoration of the of the Germanwings plane crash victims, on March 26, 2015 at the Chancellery in Berlin —© AFP
Merkel says crash findings add ‘absolutely unimaginable dimension’
BERLIN:German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday findings that a Germanwings co-pilot appeared to have deliberately slammed a jet into the French Alps added an “absolutely unimaginable dimension” to the tragedy.
Merkel said in a brief statement that “this tragedy is given a new, an absolutely unimaginable dimension” by the news about the co-pilot and that it went “beyond all imagination”.
– Mozambiquan Airlines –
November 29, 2013: Mozambique Airlines (LAM) flight TM 470 flying from Maputo to Luanda goes down in north-eastern Namibia killing 33.
Investigators said the captain had a “clear intention” to crash the plane. They said flight recorders showed the Embraer 190 went down while Captain Herminio dos Santos Fernandes manipulated its autopilot in a way which “denotes a clear intention” to bring the plane down.
– EgyptAir –
October 31, 1999: EgyptAir flight 990, a Boeing 767 en route from New York to Cairo crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take off. All 217 people on board are killed.
An analysis of the black boxes showed that the pilot caused the accident and declared shortly before the crash: “I have just taken my decision. I put my faith in God’s hands”.
– SilkAir –
December 19, 1997: A Singaporean SilkAir Boeing 737 plunges into a river in Indonesia on route from Jakarta to Singapore. All 104 passengers and crew aboard were killed. US investigators say the captain probably crashed the plane on purpose.
Media reported that the captain, who had recently been disciplined and demoted, and who was in debt, had disconnected the black boxes to cover up his act.
An investigation by Singaporean authorities was inconclusive.
– Royal Air Maroc –
August 21, 1994: The pilot of a Royal Air Maroc ATR-42 jet crashes the plane into the Atlas mountains shortly after taking off from Agadir for Casablanca. All 44 aboard are killed. The probe, based on the last words of the co-pilot, quickly concluded it was suicide.
– Japan Airlines –
February 9, 1982: A Japan Airlines DC-8 crashes into Tokyo Bay on approach to Haneda Airport. Twenty four people are killed.
A probe concluded that the pilot, who survived, was mentally unstable.
Pilot suicide is also among the various hypotheses considered in last year’s disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people aboard. The communications system was deliberately deactivated and the flight changed course.–AFP/FRANCE