An aviation expert has claimed that the shocking Germanwings Airbus A320 crash in the Alps may have been caused by hackers. In a letter to the Financial Times Matt Andersson warned of the complexities of aircraft accidents and highlighted the possibilities of secondary contributing factors – including external electronic hacking. Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany, operated by Germanwings, subsidiary of Lufthansa. On 24 March 2015, the aircraft, an Airbus A320-200, crashed 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of Nice, in the French Alps, killing all 144 passengers and six crew members aboard. The Germanwings crash has been blamed co-pilot Andreas Lubitz who deliberately locked captain Patrick Sondheimer out of the cockpit and sent the aircraft plummeting to the ground. Lubitz was apparently suffering from suicidal tendencies. As with any of the horrific air crashes that have happened over the years, Germanwings crash has also been given many conspiracy angles and one of them is given by Andersson who is the president of Chicago-based Indigo Aerospace Andersson points out that while assertions that the aircraft accelerated in its final descent may well be accurate: “It could be from any number of causes, including external electronic hacking into the aircraft’s control and navigation systems through malware or electromagnetic interception.” He adds: “This is one reason military and head-of-state aircraft are generally installed with specific shielding and additional active protective measures. Civilian aircraft are not.” Andersson points out: “Both the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) of the Germanwings flight 9525, along with other sources of information, have yet to be subject to international aircraft accident investigation standards. “Until they are, many broad assertions currently presented to the public may turn out to be erroneous, misleading or in some cases lead to improper or counterproductive regulatory and other reactions — including misplaced liability, financial and insurance claims. “Indeed the European Cockpit Association, which represents nearly 40,000 professional pilots, has rightly criticised the premature release of auditory interpretations of the aircraft’s CVR (whose condition remains unverified). “Moreover, these and other data interpretations continue to be channelled in part through state legal prosecutors who obviously may not be experts in aviation safety investigation — and which could arguably prejudice a formal technical assessment. However Andersson is not the first expert in the aviation field to have suggested the fatal crash may have been caused by hackers. Former pilot Jay Rollins appeared on MSNBC and gave his own views on the Germanwings crash. The video of the interview is given below :
