WATCH ABOVE: Investigators say they have not yet found the body of the co-pilot who took the plane down and they’re still looking for the flight data recorder. Aarti Pole reports.
The chilling final minutes of the doomed Germanwings flight have emerged in a transcript, recorded by the plane’s black box, reportedly showing the co-pilot suggesting the captain leave the cockpit, according to a report obtained by a German newspaper.
Patrick Sondheimer, flight 9525’s captain, reportedly screamed “For God’s sake, open the door!” after realizing he had been locked out of the cockpit by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, according to a transcript obtained by German newspaper Bild.
The report has been verified by Global News.
Lubitz has been accused of intentionally crashing the flight into the French alps less than a half hour after takeoff, killing himself and 149 other people on board.
READ MORE: Struggle to explain what motivated co-pilot in doomed Germanwings flight
The transcript, translated by London’s The Daily Mail, describes a calm cockpit after the plane took off from Barcelona before Lubitz tells Sondheimer to go to the toilet on several occasions. After completing mid-flight checks for landing, Lubitz says to Sondheimer ‘You can go now.’
Two minutes later the pilot says “You can take over,” and his chair can be heard being pushed back as he leaves the cockpit. The plane begins its descent almost immediately, at 10:29 a.m. local time.
According to Bild, within minutes a loud bang can be heard as attempts are made to enter the cockpit, before Sondheimer yells, “For God’s sake, open the door!” Passengers can be heard screaming in the background.
At 10:35 a.m., more metallic banging is heard followed by the pilot yelling “Open the goddam door!” Sondheimer reportedly took an axe to try and break through the door in a last minute effort to stop the plane from crashing.
At 10:40 a.m., the final sounds of passengers screaming are heard as the right wing of the aircraft hits a mountain, Bild reports.
READ MORE: Germanwings crash victim’s father calls for more focus on pilot welfare
French and German investigators are trying to determine what caused Lubitz to make the decision to crash the plane. Prosecutors in Dusseldorf have said the co-pilot hid evidence of an illness from his employers, which included a torn-up doctor’s note that would have kept him off work the day authorities say he crashed Flight 9525.
Other media reports have suggested Lubitz suffered from “depression,” while the Wall Street Journal reported he had a vision problem that was serious enough to ground him.
In Rome, Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of the Germanwings crash after Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square to a crowd of roughly 70,000 people.
Meanwhile in Lubitz’s hometown of Montabaur, the pastor of the Lutheran church said the community stands by him and his family.
“For us, it makes it particularly difficult that the only victim from Montabaur is suspected to have caused this tragedy,” Michael Dietrich told The Associated Press on Sunday. “The co-pilot, the family belong to our community, and we stand by this, and we embrace them and will not hide this, and want to support the family in particular.”
The airplane in the deliberate crash was an Airbus A320, the same model involved in a crash landing at Halifax’s Stanfield International Airport Sunday.
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