The tragic crash of a Germanwings jet in the French Alps this week has been deemed to be an act of mass murder. French aviation authorities have stated that the pilot of the plane was locked out of the cockpit by the co-pilot. The co-pilot has been identified as Andreas Lubitz and according to the flight recorders was silent, as the screams of passengers and the pilot could be heard in the background. Lubitz took the plane off automatic and pointed it toward the ground in a nightmarish eight-minute descent to doom, killing all 150 passengers and crew aboard.
Lubitz was a German national with no record of terrorist activity or leanings. He had only logged 100 hours of flight time in the type of plane he was piloting when he was declared fully eligible to be a pilot. In contrast, the pilot of the plan was much more experienced and had logged over 10,000 hours of flight time.
