A320, en-route Alpes-de-Haute-Provence France, 2015

A320, en-route Alpes-de-Haute-Provence France, 2015

Summary

On 24 March 2015, after waiting for the Captain to leave the flight deck and preventing his return, a Germanwings A320 First Officer put his aircraft into a continuous descent from FL380 into terrain killing all 150 occupants. Investigation concluded the motive was suicide, noted a history of mental illness dating from before qualification as a pilot and found that prior to the crash he had been experiencing mental disorder with psychotic symptoms which had not been detected through the applicable process for medical certification of pilots. Conflict between the principles of medical confidentiality and wider public interest was identified.

Description

On 24 March 2015, an Airbus A320 (D-AIPX) being operated by Lufthansa Group subsidiary Germanwings on a scheduled passenger flight (4U9525) from Barcelona to Dusseldorf under R/T call sign GWI18G was in the cruise at FL380 in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) when ATC lost contact with it. The wreckage of the aircraft was subsequently found scattered over a wide area in mountainous terrain in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region of south eastern France. The aircraft was completely destroyed and all 150 occupants were killed.

A general view of the Accident Site[reproduced from the Official Report]

Investigation

A Safety Investigation was carried out by the French Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Agency, the BEA. Wreckage at the accident site, which was located in mountainous terrain at an altitude of 5085 feet (1550 metres) amsl, was highly fragmented - the largest parts of the aircraft were about 3 to 4 metres long - and was spread over an area of 4 hectares in a sloping, rocky ravine - see the illustration.

The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) were both recovered and their data successfully downloaded. The Quick Access Recorder was also recovered but found to have been subjected to too much damage for its data - the same as that on the FDR - to be read. A GPWS/TAWS Warning "Terrain, Terrain, Pull Up, Pull Up" was found to have been activated 25 seconds prior to impact and to have remained active until impact occurred.

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