Germanwings Audio Transcript Reveals Captain Begging Lubitz to Open Door; Co-Pilot's Girlfriend Claims She Is Expecting His Child
The audio transcript from the "black box" recordings of the fatal Germanwings Flight 9525 has been leaked, revealing that Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer screamed and begged co-pilot Andreas Lubitz to open the door. Lubitz's girlfriend has said in separate reports that she's expecting his child.
While the audio itself was not released, German newspaper Bild released on Sunday the transcript of what it says is on 1.5 hours of audio footage from the cockpit voice recorder. CNN translated the transcript, though pointed out it cannot verify its authenticity.
The transcript allegedly says that Sondenheimer screamed and banged on the locked cockpit door, asking Lubitz: "For God's sake, open the door!"
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The co-pilot, who began the plane's descent after the captain had stepped out to go the bathroom, never opened the door but silently guided the plane as it crashed into the French Alps last week, killing all 150 people on board.
Investigators have been looking for clues to help them understand why Lubitz committed the mass murder-suicide. Last week several websites reported that Lubitz apparently suffered from depression, and even interrupted his flight training six years ago due to a "severe depressive episode," which required treatment for a year and a half. Investigators even found a torn-up doctor's notes in his home, but the illness or condition he was suffering from has not been revealed.
A new German report from Bild on Sunday revealed that the co-pilot's girlfriend, who wasn't named, said that she's expecting a baby with him. The Telegraph translated the report, noting that the woman, who works as a teacher, told her students about her pregnancy in the past few weeks. The two apparently lived together in a flat in the German city of Dusseldorf.
There is still no direct evidence to show why Lubitz decided to crash the plane, however. The leaked transcript does not show anything suspicious in the exchanges between Lubitz and Sondenheimer before the co-pilot locked the cockpit door, other than Lubitz telling the captain he can go to the bathroom at any time if he needs to.
French authorities, who first broke the news that Lubitz had deliberately crashed the plane, are said to be angered by the release of the transcript. Accident investigation agency BEA told CNN that it's "dismayed" at the leak.
Meanwhile, Lubitz's home town of Montabaur has been holding church services to pray for the victims of the plane crash, along with the co-pilot's parents and younger brother.
On Sunday, the packed congregation in the town's main Catholic church prayed for all those affected by Lubitz's actions.
Father Blechschmidt of the St Peter in Chains church told the 200-strong congregation at the Palm Sunday service: "Lord, our God, we grieve for the victims of flight 4U9525 in the French Alps. Stunned, we had to follow this terrible disaster in the media. It is hard to put our thoughts into words and to understand what has happened, perhaps because it cannot be understood."
He continued: "The knowledge that we have about this plane crash is not yet definitive. That does not make this situation easier for us."
