Germanwings Flight 9525

Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Lufthansa. On 24 March 2015, the Airbus A320-211 operating the flight crashed 100 km (62 mi; 54 nmi) north-west of Nice in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. The crash was deliberately caused by the first officer, Andreas Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies and declared unfit to work by his doctor. Lubitz kept this information from his employer and instead reported for duty. Shortly after reaching cruise altitude and while the captain was out of the cockpit, Lubitz locked the cockpit door and set the plane to fly downward in a controlled descent into a mountain. Aviation authorities swiftly implemented new recommendations from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency that required at least two authorised people to be in the cockpit at all times but, by 2017, this rule had been dropped. By 2017, Lufthansa had paid €75,000 to the family of every victim, as well as €10,000 in pain and suffering compensation to every close relative of a victim.