Germanwings crash: understand the incredible: The story of flight 4U9525

It was almost ten years ago that Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashes on the way to Düsseldorf in the Alps. It is the biggest tragedy in the history of German aviation. Not least because the investigators are sure that the depressive copilot deliberately caused the crash to take life. On the anniversary of March 24, the ARD devoted to the catastrophe an elaborate and sensitive four -part. The film is already available in the media library.

The tenth anniversary of special memories and feelings is accompanied by special memories and feelings for the members of the 144 passengers and 5 crew members, who the Copilot from Montabaur from Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate. Filmmaker Justine Rosenkranz listens to them, lets them tell her stories and put her emotions into words.

Memories that never go out of their heads again

There is the mother who tells of the last WhatsApp message that her 15-year-old daughter sent shortly before departure. The wife who has to explain to her young children that dad no longer comes home. The policeman who will never get the first look at the complete destruction at the scene of the accident. The father, who is still desperate that no one has been held responsible for the death of his family.

Last but not least, the story of 16 students and two teachers from the Westphalian Halter am See, who were on the way back from a student exchange, is particularly stirring.

But investigators, engineers, emergency services and lawyers also have their say. They report how they had to work soberly and professionally with all the suffering.

A picture of events and emotions is composed

The film allows people to tell their stories in detail and without hurry and thus gets out with little speaker text. For the audience, a very complete picture of the events and emotions are made up for the two hours.

Filmmaker Justine Rosenkranz has been regularly in contact with some survivors since the accident ten years ago and has thus received exceptionally confidential access to many interlocutors.

Insights into the psyche of the copilot seem a lot

The WDR production also quotes in detail from notes that were found in the copilots. They draw a picture of a depressed person who reports on an “infinite sadness” in his life; that he sees no other way out than putting an end to his life. The dozens of doctors consulted, finally researched various suicide methods on the Internet – and also consider the crash of an aircraft. The film is not easy.

Again and again the question arises: Why was the copilot so easy to lock out the captain out of the cockpit and then bring a large transport aircraft to the crash? Where did the system fail? And what has to change so that something like that doesn’t happen again?

Monthly True crime format

The ARD does not take up the topic in a classic documentary, but in its monthly “Crime Time” series. “Real criminal cases. Insights in spectacular investigations”, the ARD advertises the series – and promises: “Excitement guaranteed.”

This sometimes leads to the very sensitive interviews in scenes almost seamlessly, in which actors in the style of American “CSI” series make up the work of the investigators. It shows several times how the crash may have looked in the cockpit from the perspective of the copilot. Fortunately, the emotional depth of the interviews cannot overlap the effects.

In the media library, all four episodes of “The Germanwings Crash – Chronology of a Crime” are already available. According to WDR, a broadcast date on linear television has not yet been determined.