Germanwings captain may have had drink spiked

Debris of the Germanwings crash near Seyne-les-Alpes, France. Picture: AP

GERMANWINGS co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have spiked the captain’s drink with a diuretic to force him to leave the cockpit, it has been claimed.

Cologne newspaper Express has suggested that Lubitz, the co-pilot who ploughed an Airbus A320 into the French Alps, researched diuretic drugs online before the crash.

Prosecutors, who seized his computer in the subsequent aftermath of the crash during police searches of his Düsseldorf apartment, have so far refused to comment on the diuretics report.

Police are believed to be continuing to trawl through the device, on which they also found that Lubitz had researched cockpit doors and ways to kill himself in the weeks leading up to the murder-suicide.

• Germanwings co-pilot Lubitz sped up plane descent

Diuretic drugs are substances to induce the need to urinate. Express has suggested that Lubitz may have spiked Captain Patrick Sonderheimer’s drink in order to make him need the lavatory and leave the flight deck.

There is no evidence to suggest Lubitz bought the drugs or took them on board with him.

Germanwings flight 4U9525 departed Barcelona on 24th March bound for Düsseldorf with 150 passengers and crew on board.

Leaked transcripts of the cockpit voice recorders suggest Sonderheimer left the controls at Lubitz’ insistence before locking the cockpit door behind him by overriding the emergency entry code.

Evidence from the flight data recorder, the second of the black boxes, suggests Lubitz then deliberately programmed the aircraft to descent into the Alps.