The boss of the airline involved in the French Alps disaster said today he was “stunned” that the plane might have been deliberately crashed by its co-pilot.
Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said the crash, which killed 150 people, including co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, was “beyond our worst nightmare”.
He was speaking in Cologne after French prosecutors released evidence from the recovered cockpit voice recorder of the plane operated by Lufthansa’s budget airline, Germanwings.
It showed that Mr Lubitz appeared to have sent the jet crashing into the mountains, killing everyone on board, including at least three Britons.
German Mr Lubitz put the plane into a descent after locking the captain out of the cockpit, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.
Evidence from the black box flight recorder suggests he then refused to open the cockpit door to the captain, who can be heard pounding on the door in a desperate attempt to break in.
Mr Spohr said: “Not in our worst nightmare would we imagine this happening. This is by far the most terrible event for our company.”
He said Mr Lubitz was fit to fly and his previous performance has “without any criticism”.
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