France: Lubitz Tried Controlled Descent on Previous Flight
The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 4525 tried a controlled descent on the previous flight that morning to Barcelona before the plane crashed into a mountainside in March on its way back to Germany, French air accident investigators said in a new report released Wednesday.
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz repeatedly set the plane into a descent, then brought it back up again on a flight on the same A320 jet from Duesseldorf to Barcelona, the BEA investigation agency said in the report.
The report said the pilot appeared to have left the cockpit during that flight as well.
Cockpit data shows that he put the plane into descent mode five times in a four and half-minute period during the Duesseldorf-Barcelona leg.
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