Join Alice and Zach as they explore one of aviation's most disturbing tragedies. On March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately locked the captain out of the cockpit and intentionally flew the plane into a mountainside. This episode examines the fatal flaws in cockpit security procedures implemented after 9/11, the devastating impact of untreated mental illness in safety-critical professions, and the difficult balance between medical privacy and public safety. Discover how this horrifying act of mass murder-suicide forced airlines worldwide to reconsider their protocols and prompted important conversations about pilot mental health monitoring that continue to shape aviation safety today.

Sources:

• "How a Pilot Deliberately Crashed a Passenger Plane" - Air Crash Investigation
• Kreindler & Kreindler LLP - Legal documentation regarding 2016 lawsuit against Airline Training Center Arizona
• Courthouse News - Coverage of families' civil claims and U.S. court proceedings
• The Guardian - Reporting on families' compensation claims and Lufthansa's initial offers (2015)
• Reuters - Coverage of families preparing U.S. lawsuit (2015)
• Time Magazine - Summary of Lufthansa compensation offers and insurance reserves
• AP News / DPA - Reporting on Essen court decision rejecting higher compensation claims (July 1, 2020)
• Aviation Pros / DPA - Coverage of German appeal outcomes (September 2021)
• Aviation24.be / CatalanNews - Spanish Supreme Court increases compensation for select families (May 2023)
• Wikipedia - Germanwings Flight 9525 consolidated timeline and legal proceedings

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Credits:

Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.