Germanwings Flight 9525: Marseille Control Watches It Descend
The short version
This three-minute Smithsonian Channel clip follows Germanwings Flight 9525 on 24 March 2015 from its takeoff in Barcelona to the moment it dropped off radar over the French Alps. It is told mostly from Marseille air traffic control, as controllers try and fail to reach the crew during a 10-minute descent.
Full written account
This short clip from Smithsonian Channel's Air Disasters series covers only the flight itself, as it looked from the ground.
Takeoff
It opens in the cockpit at Barcelona, with Captain Patrick Sondenheimer and First Officer Andreas Lubitz running their checklists. The first officer will do the flying. The A320 gets airborne just after 10 a.m. and heads north-east over the Gulf of Lion towards the Alps, due in Düsseldorf in just over two hours.
The descent
Twenty-seven minutes into the flight the aircraft reaches 38,000 feet. Four minutes later a controller in Marseille notices that it is descending without permission and asks what altitude it is cleared for. There is no answer. Within minutes the aircraft has lost 10,000 feet and is descending at its maximum operating speed. The control centre goes into emergency mode and asks another aircraft to try to contact the flight. After 10 minutes with no radio contact, the aircraft is below 7,000 feet among the mountains, and then it is gone from radar.
The clip ends there, before anyone knew why. The Mayday episode on this page follows the investigation.
Questions this video answers
Where was Germanwings Flight 9525 headed?
Germanwings Flight 9525 was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf on March 24, 2015.
When did the descent begin?
The plane reached its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet 27 minutes into the flight, and about four minutes later the Marseille controller noticed it descending without permission.
Did the crew respond to air traffic control?
The video describes the plane as unresponsive and says there was no radio contact for 10 minutes, but it does not state the cause.
Who were the pilots?
Captain Patrick Sondenheimer and first officer Andreas Lubitz.
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