French aviation experts examining the black box and recordings from the Germanwings flight believe that the crash may have been a deliberate, suicidal choice by the pilot in the cockpit. Initial audio reports show that one of the pilots, the more experienced of the two, remained locked outside the cockpit. But now French newspaper “Le Monde” states that the experienced pilot was inside the cockpit while the less experienced one could not get in.

The decision for the crash could have been purposely made by the remaining pilot on the Barcelona-Dusseldorf flight before its 11-minute descent. Bearing in mind the good conditions of the flight, flying straight into the mountain makes no sense. Experts believe that the pilot who remained in teh cockpit either decided to commit suicide or suffered from sudden illness. The latter cause seems unlikely but is being investigated.

According to the suicide theory, the pilot may have purposely locked his co-pilot out of the cockpit. Le Figaro states that the other pilot could only have been kept away from controls if a “deny” button was pushed. A French pilot told Le Figaro that the pilot outside could have entered by tapping a re-entry code but the pilot at the control can block the opening by pushing a deny button. If he was ill, then the door would have opened. If the other pilot forgot the code, a member of the code would have supplied a master code.