Here are today’s top stories.
1. Germanwings plane’s second black box confirms Lubitz’ deliberate action.
Analysis of the flight data recorder from Germanwings flight 9525 has confirmed that pilot Andreas Lubitz acted deliberately to crash the aircraft.
As previously reported, the second black box was found by the French Gendarme, buried beneath 20 centimetres of earth in an area searched several times before.
In a statement issued by the French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (or BEA), investigators have confirmed that Lubitz used auto-pilot to descend the aircraft towards an altitude of 30 metres.
“Then, several times during the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the aircraft’s speed,” they added.
As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, this information confirms the theory that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Data from the first black box revealed that due to the speed, all passengers and crew died instantly.
2. Blood and Tissue found on surgical instruments at Perth’s Fiona Stanley Hospital.
By David Webber
Blood and body tissue has been found on medical instruments at Perth’s Fiona Stanley Hospital, placing the contract to provide the sterilisation service to the hospital in jeopardy.
The Western Australian Health Department warned it could take back full responsibility for the sterilisation process after service and outsourcing company, Serco, was issued with a second breach-of-contract notice.
Health department staff have been supervising the process since February, following a number of issues.