Accidents
Report: Germanwings Copilot Rehearsed Crash Settings
Briefly set altitude on FCU to 100 feet during flight from Dusseldorf to Barcelona
The copilot flying the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed into the French Alps on March 24 practiced changing the airplane's altitude selection to its lowest setting on his previous flight. (Photo: Flickr: Creative Commons (BY) by GerardvdSchaaf)
The copilot flying the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed into the French Alps on March 24 practiced changing the airplane's altitude selection to its lowest setting on his previous flight. (Photo: Flickr: Creative Commons (BY) by GerardvdSchaaf)

The copilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings A320 into the French Alps on March 24 apparently rehearsed a procedure to place the airplane into a controlled descent during the previous flight from Dusseldorf to Barcelona earlier in the morning, according to an interim report released by French accident investigation agency BEA on Wednesday. In a summary of initial findings, the report indicates that the flight data recorder (FDR) recorded several altitude selections toward 100 feet during descent on the flight that preceded the accident flight, while copilot Andreas Lubitz sat alone in the cockpit.