Germanwings pilot ‘locked out of cockpit’ before crash

One of the two pilots of the Germanwings Airbus 320 that unexpectedly crashed in the French Alps was locked out of the cockpit, according to reports.

The New York Times quoted an unnamed investigator as saying that one of the two pilots had left the cockpit and had been unable to get back in.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door, and there is no answer," the investigator said, describing audio from the cockpit voice recorder. "And then he hits the door stronger, and no answer. There is never an answer. You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."

It is unclear whether the pilot is the captgain or the first officer.

A source close to the investigation into the crashed shared a similar story to the AFP news agency. The source added that an alarm indicating proximity could be heard before the moment of impact.

French officials said on Wednesday that usable data had been extracted from the cockpit voice recorder and Remi Jouty, director of the French aviation investigative agency, said that investigators should have the "first rough ideas in a matter of days".

He said that the second "black box" - the flight data recorder - has not yet been found, despite an earlier statement by French President Francois Hollande that its casing had been recovered.

Jouly said that the plane’s last communication was a routine one with air traffic control. It began its descent a minute after confirming instructions to continue on its flight path. However, he ruled out an explosion and said that the plane was “flying right to the end.”

"At this stage, clearly, we are not in a position to have the slightest explanation or interpretation of the reasons that could have led this plane to descend... or the reasons why it did not respond to attempts to contact it by air traffic controllers,” Jouly said.

The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed into a mountain on Tuesday after a rapid eight-minute descent.

Lufthansa has not named the two pilots but said the co-pilot joined Germanwings in September 2013, directly after training, and had flown 630 hours.

It said the captain had joined Germanwings in May 2014, after more than 6,000 hours of flying experience, including with Lufthansa and Condor.

The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed into a mountain on Tuesday after a rapid eight-minute descent, killing 144 passengers and six crew members.

Germanwings chief Thomas Winkelmann said that 72 of the passengers were German citizens, including 16 pupils returning from an exchange trip. Spain’s government said that 51 of the dead were Spanish, while other victims were from Australia, Argentina, Britain, Iran, Venezuela, the US, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark and Israel.

Families and friends of the victims are expected to visit the crash site at Meolans-Revels later on Thursday.