Germanwings flight 4U9525: Killer co-pilot 'suffering from detached retina'

Transcripts from the Airbus A320's 'black box' recordings published today show that captain Patrick Sondheimer yelled Lubitz deliberately flew the aircraft into a mountainside, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board. 

The harrowing audio is also said to reveal how Lubitz had repeatedly urged his captain to go to the toilet so that he could carry out his sinister plan to deliberately crash the plane, even remarking that the senior officer had not taken a comfort break at the airport before taking the controls. 

When Captain Sondheimer ordered the mass murderer to prepare for the plane's scheduled landing in Dusseldorf, Lubitz appears to reply by saying "hopefully" and "we'll see". 

Moments later, the captain left the flight deck to go to for an ill-fated toilet break. While he was away, Lubitz is believed to have locked the reinforced cockpit door and manually put the plane into a descent, setting the airliner on a collision course with the French Alps.

The horrifying transcript, published in today’s edition of the German newspaper Bild, reveals that the flight started with Captain Sondheimer apologising to passengers for a 26-minute delay in Barcelona, and promising to make up the time en route to Dusseldorf.

Shortly after they have taken off Lubitz puts his seemingly orchestrated plan into action, telling the captain he can go to the toilet at any time and that he will take over the controls. 

In a chilling display of premeditation, the killer even notes that the pilot did not go to the lavatory in Barcelona before take-off. 

A short while later Lubitz completes the landing checks and turns to his captain again, saying "you can go now". 

The doomed pilot lets another two minutes pass before turning to his colleague, telling Lubitz "you can take over". 

The recording then clearly captures the sound of his seat being pushed back and the clunk of the door closing behind him. 

Within minutes the plane has plunged 1,800ft, prompting air traffic controllers to make increasingly desperate attempts to contact crew but without response. 

In the plane, the automatic alarm signal ‘Sink Rate’ sounds almost at the same time, according to the voice recorder.

The black box recorder has shown that Lubitz continued to breathe normally during the terrifying eight minute descent to death which followed, but never said another word despite the frantic pleas of of his captain. 

Shortly afterwards there is a loud bang, which sounds like someone trying to enter the cockpit, and Sondheimer yells: "For God’s sake, open the door!"

In the background, passengers can be heard screaming.

Minutes later, with the jet still 7,000ft above ground, a "loud, metallic banging against the cockpit door" is heard, thought to be the captain frantically trying to break it down with a crowbar. 

About 90 seconds later the plane's onboard computer blares out the warning message "Ground! Pull up! Pull up!" as Sondheimer screams once more "open the God damn door!".

At 10.40am the recorder picked up the last screams from the passengers as the aircraft's right wing clipped the mountainside, seconds before the rest slammed into the ravine. 

The heartbreaking recordings were released as more revelations about the killer co-pilot's health problems were unearthed, possibly shedding light on what drove him to commit such an atrocity. 

Yesterday, it emerged that Lubitz was living "on the edge" because he feared that his deteriorating vision and increasingly blurred eyesight would cost him his pilot's licence. 

It was claimed today that the troubled airman may have been suffering from a detached retina, possibly brought on by psychological stress. 

A senior investigator told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that the 27-year-old "was treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists" and that a mountain of unused pills had been found in his apartment.

Police also discovered personal notes that showed Lubitz suffered from "severe subjective overstress symptoms", he added.

Lufthansa, the parent company of the budget airline, said the carrier was unaware of a psychosomatic or any other illness affecting Lubitz. 

"We have no information of our own on that," a spokesman said.

As more evidence of Lubitz's tangled private life came to light, it was also claimed that the severely depressed pilot had also planned to marry his long-term girlfriend but she broke off the relationship because his 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality left her fearing for her safety.

The woman, a teacher, is understood to have called time on Lubitz's increasingly erratic and controlling behaviour, just weeks before the Germanwings crash.

Previous girlfriends described him as "tormented and erratic" and said he was constantly stressed about work. 

Meanwhile German media reported that Lubitz had embarked on a five-month fling with a Germanwings stewardess, who recalled how he would wake up from nightmares seemingly about plane crashes. 

"He was always seeking assurances about the way he looked and the way he was viewed by others," she said, labelling the pilot a "tormented and erratic" man.  

In a haunting revelation she said he would wake up from nightmares in a panic screaming: "We’re going down, we’re going down!"

She then added: "He once told me he would do something to change the whole system, that the world would know his name and remember him."

Reports also suggested that Lubitz had been refusing to take his medication after it emerged that police searching his flat had found "a small mountain of pills". 

The airman had been repeatedly signed off sick by doctors - including for the day of the crash - but had hid this from his employers.