A pilot of the plane that crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 on board left the cockpit before the fateful descent and was left trying to smash the door down but still failed to get back in, a report said Wednesday, AFP reports.
A pilot of the plane that crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 on board left the cockpit before the fateful descent and was left trying to smash the door down but still failed to get back in, a report said Wednesday, AFP reports.
The New York Times cited a senior military official involved in the investigation who had heard the cockpit voice recorder.
The official was quoted as saying that there was a "very smooth, very cool" conversation between the two pilots during the early part of the doomed flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf on Tuesday.
Then the audio indicated that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not re-enter, the investigator said.
"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer," the investigator told the newspaper. "And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer.
"You can hear he is trying to smash the door down."
The official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is continuing, told The New York Times: "We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out.
"But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone, and does not open the door."