"Germanwings captain tried to break into locked cockpit door 'with an axe'..."

"...as plane was descending"

The captain of the doomed Germanwings plane reportedly used an axe to break down the cockpit door in the final moments before his co-pilot “intentionally” descended the plane, killing everyone on board.

French investigators said the captain can be heard asking “several times” for access after identifying himself, but received no response. He then banged on the door before trying to forcefully gain entry, with one investigator telling The New York Times: “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.”

Internet rumor is that the co-pilot was a Muslim convert... (via Gateway Pundit)

Authorities are not yet calling it a terrorist attack.

"Co-pilot appears to have crashed Germanwings plane on purpose"

"A young German co-pilot locked himself alone in the cockpit of a Germanwings airliner and flew it into a mountain with what appears to have been the intent to destroy it, a French prosecutor said on Thursday."

Investigators and grieving relatives were left struggling to explain what motivated Andreas Lubitz, 28, to kill all 150 people on board the Airbus A320, including himself, in Wednesday's crash in the French Alps.

The CEO of Lufthansa, parent company of Germanwings, said its air crew were picked carefully and subjected to psychological vetting.

"No matter your safety regulations, no matter how high you set the bar, and we have incredibly high standards, there is no way to rule out such an event," CEO Carsten Spohr said. (read more)

My speculation, after the pilot's name was released this morning, was that maybe the co-pilot wanted the passengers to have a closer view of the French Alps. Perhaps, similarly to how the captain of the Concordia wanted his passengers to take a closer look ashore and miscalculated. Who knows?

Maybe the authorities will find something to explain his actions, but, maybe they wont.