WASHINGTON — An investigator into the Germanwings crash into the French Alps that killed 150 people Tuesday says that one of the pilots left the cockpit before the plane went into a descent and was unable to get back in.
The New York Times reports that the investigator, a senior military official, cites evidence from a cockpit voice recorder, and describes the conversation between the pilots at the beginning of the flight from Barcelona, Spain, headed to Düsseldorf, Germany, as “very smooth, very cool.”
Then, the Times reports, the audio indicates that one of the pilots left the cockpit and couldn’t get back in.
“The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer,” the investigator told the Times. “And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer.”
He said, “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.”
The Airbus A320 went into a smooth decline for about 10 minutes from a height of 38,000 feet before crashing — gradual enough to indicate that the plane was probably still in good shape.
French aviation authorities declined to comment to the Times on the evidence.
The Times adds that the casing of other black box — the flight data recorder — has also been found, but that the memory card was not inside, presumably having been destroyed or knocked loose by the impact.
The pilots didn’t communicate with air traffic controllers during the plane’s descent, the Times reports. A senior French official involved in the investigation tells the Times that that lack of communication was “very weird. …
“I don’t like it,” he said.
