On March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525—an Airbus A320-211 operating from Barcelona to Düsseldorf—levelled off at 38,000 feet over the French Alps. The captain left the cockpit for a bathroom break. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who had been treated for severe depression and suicidal ideation but had concealed his medical history from the airline, locked the reinforced cockpit door and initiated a controlled descent. Air traffic controllers received no response. The French Air Force scrambled a Mirage fighter, but it was too late. At 10:41 AM, the aircraft slammed into a mountainside near Prads-Haute-Bléone at roughly 700 km/h (~378 knots), killing all 150 occupants—144 passengers and 6 crew. The BEA investigation revealed Lubitz had researched suicide methods and cockpit door security online. The tragedy forced a global reassessment of cockpit access protocols: the "two-person rule" (requiring two authorized crew members in the cockpit at all times) became mandatory across Europe and many other jurisdictions, and aviation medical confidentiality laws were re-examined to balance patient privacy with public safety.

Study Hook: Lubitz's medical history was known to his doctors but protected by privacy laws that prevented disclosure to his employer. How did Germanwings 9525 force the aviation industry to reconsider the balance between medical confidentiality and the duty to protect passengers?

Visual Prompt: A stark mountain ridge in the French Maritime Alps, with scattered wreckage of an Airbus A320 fuselage section on a steep slope, a search helicopter hovering above, and yellow rescue tape marking the debris field in morning mist.

Tags: [Germanwings 9525, Airbus A320, suicide by pilot, cockpit door, two-person rule, medical confidentiality, French Alps, 2015, BEA]