"Hopefully... we'll see' Chilling words of Crash Co-Pilot are revealed by Blackbox

 

Killer pilot Andreas Lubitz can be heard responding ‘hopefully’ and ‘we’ll see’ when he ran through in-flight landing checks with the captain of his doomed aircraft.

His chilling responses came just a few moments before he encouraged Patrick Sondenheimer to go the toilet and took control of the flight.

 

Later Mr Sondenheimer is heard shouting ‘open the god damn door!’ as he desperately tried to break back into the cockpit.

The exchange was revealed yesterday as pictures of Lubitz as a child and a teenager emerged, and it was claimed his girlfriend may be pregnant.

Passengers screamed as Mr Sondenheimer attempted to smash his way in with a crowbar after Lubitz locked him out and put the plane into a descent.

But the only sound from the cockpit was Lubitz breathing as the aircraft plummeted at 3,500 feet per minute before smashing into the French Alps, killing all 150 of those on board.

The transcript from the plane’s black box recorder revealed Lubitz’s responses to the landing checks and him calmly encouraging Mr Sondenheimer to go the toilet.

After Mr Sondenheimer left him at the controls, he switched the autopilot from the cruising altitude of 38,000ft to 96ft – a move that was certain to crash the plane over the Alps.

German investigators have found torn-up sicknotes in Lubitz’s Dusseldorf flat which showed he had hidden the extent of his illness from his employers. At least one of the medical certificates covered the day of the crash last Tuesday.

The 27-year-old was also said to be ‘living on the edge’ because he feared that his deteriorating blurred vision would cost him his pilot’s licence. And his relationship with blonde maths teacher, named by German media as Kathrin Goldbach, was said to be in trouble, with local reports suggesting she may have been pregnant.

Maths teacher Kathrin Goldbach – who had planned to marry Lubitz next year – reportedly told pupils that she was ‘going to be a mum.’ She was also said to have travelled to the scene of the crash, only to arrive and discover that he was the perpetrator of the disaster.

Miss Goldbach, 26, told the pupils at the Gesamtschule in Krefeld, near Dusseldorf, she was pregnant, German newspaper Bild reported. They moved together to Dusseldorf and shared a flat after he qualified as a pilot around four years ago. 

They intended to marry but his constant demands and desire to be ‘in control’ meant that by the time of the crash she was looking to end their relationship.

Reports emerged that police searching his flat had found a ‘small mountain of pills’ and he had apparently been refusing to take his antidepressant medication. An excerpt from his school yearbook said he would ‘become a professional pilot so as to sell his cocktails around the world’.

Yesterday a British air safety expert said Lubitz was able to hide his medical problems because of a ‘gaping hole’ in the system for monitoring pilot health. Under confidentiality laws rules, which also operate in the UK, patients do not have to tell GPs where they work and doctors are not able to tell employers about any health issues because of patient confidentiality.

The onus of reporting any health issues rests solely on employees. Tony Newton, a British pilot and Civil Aviation Authority examiner, said: ‘It’s a gaping hole. It would happen in the UK as well.’ On the in-flight recording, described in German newspaper Bild, Mr Sondenheimer is initially heard apologising for a short, 26-minute delay in the departure from Barcelona, and promising to make up the time on the routine flight to Dusseldorf.

During snippets from the conversation, he also explains to his colleague that he had not had time to go to the toilet before they left Spain. Lubitz tells him he can go to the toilet ‘at any time’ in a tone described as ‘laconic’ by French authorities.

After completing their mid-flight checks for landing, Lubitz says to Mr Sondenheimer again: ‘You can go now.’

Two minutes later Mr Sondenheimer agrees to go, and says: ‘You can take over.’ 

There is the sound of a seat being pushed back and a click of the closing door.

Shortly afterwards there is a loud bang, like someone trying to enter the cockpit. 

This is followed by a ‘loud, metallic banging against the cockpit door’ – believed to be Sondheimer using a crowbar to try to break in.

As the jet plunges towards oblivion an automated warning sounds: ‘Ground! Pull up! Pull up!’ 

The pilot is heard shouting: ‘Open the god damn door!’ when he realises they are moments from death.

At 10.40am – eight minutes after the drama began – the aircraft’s right wing hits the mountain. 

The final sounds are more screams from passengers as the plane disintegrates and disappears from radar.

The speed of the crash meant that most of it was obliterated and no bodies have been discovered intact.

A road is now being built to the crash site in the Alps near the French town of Digne-les-Bains in an attempt to help recovery workers and investigators.

Mr Sondenheimer’s grandmother, Marianne, told how he had dreamed of becoming a pilot as a boy.

She said: ‘My grandson is dead and all because of an idiot who did this to his whole flight and killed so many people. 

'I just cannot understand it. How could he do this?’

Mrs Sondenheim, who is in her 70s, said her grandson was determined to become an airline captain, even as a schoolboy.

She added: ‘He was just 34 years old. 

'Now this – I cannot bring myself to watch the news any more, it is too much to bear. A young man is dead with so many others.’

She said Mr Sondenheimer was a father of a daughter of six and a son of three. 

He had changed from long haul to short haul flights to spend more time with his family.