• Fatal Descent

  • Andreas Lubitz and the Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525
  • By: Jeff Wise
  • Narrated by: Jeff Wise
  • Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (75 ratings)

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Fatal Descent

By: Jeff Wise
Narrated by: Jeff Wise
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Publisher's summary

The definitive investigation into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 and the mind of the copilot who committed the most shocking crime in aviation history.

On March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. In the ensuing days, a picture of the flight's harrowing final moments began to emerge. Shortly after reaching cruise altitude, a 27-year-old first officer named Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit, took control of the plane, and deliberately caused its descent.

In Fatal Descent, journalist and aviation expert Jeff Wise travels to Lubitz's hometown in Germany and pieces together a definitive and haunting portrait of the killer and the system he betrayed, revealing in heart-pounding detail how a lifelong superachiever like Lubitz could have committed such an unthinkable act, what actually happened inside the cockpit, and whether current airline regulations leave us vulnerable to similar attacks in the future.

Jeff Wise is a science journalist specializing in aviation and psychology. He is the author of the best-selling Kindle Single The Plane That Wasn't There, about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. A licensed pilot of gliders and light airplanes, he also has stick time in powered paragliders, trikes, World War II fighter planes, Soviet jet fighters, gyroplanes, and zeppelins as well as submarines, tanks, hovercraft, dog sleds, and swamp buggies. A contributing editor at Travel + Leisure magazine, he has written for New York, The New York Times, Time, Businessweek, Esquire, Details, and many others. His Popular Mechanics story on the fate of Air France 447 was named one of the Top 10 Longreads of 2011. His last book was Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger.

©2015 Jeff Wise (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

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Excellent

It doesn't need to be long to be great. Jeff Wise is an excellent writer who could have a career in narration.

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Bravo

Loved it. Very insightful. Excellent narration as always with Jeff Wise. He researches these stories tirelessly

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great free audiobook

I've paid for several jet crash books but this one, which is free, engaged me more than the others.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Germanwings 9525

The story was good, I enjoy learning factual accounts of the crash. I did feel the author romanticized the killer, going as far to say he was likely sane. IMHO, sane people don’t kill 150 innocent individuals. If anything, the fact that Lubitz could appear sane made him more diabolical. I do recommend the story.

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Ripping Forensic Dissection of Mass Murder Suicide

A very well researched close to forensic step-by-step reconstruction of the event and a young pilot's purposeful mind taken to the breaking point by Lufthansa's perhaps excessive qualification requisites in its pilot selection process.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Boring

I struggled to finish it. I even skipped a few of the chapters. I also didn't find that there was enough said about what actually happened. I felt there was just a lot of rambling. I would not recommend.

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Account of the Tragedy & Life of Andreas Lubitz


This was a fascinating account of how one man, in a trusted position of pilot, suffering from depression and mental illness, committed suicide and killed 150 people by crashing a plane. His depression was known to the airline, yet they allowed him to fly anyway. This book aptly covers his background and explains how the testing and procedures failed, yet new ones have been drafted, to hopefully keep this from happening again. The author narrates his book and he does an excellent job. I hope he narrates more books. An excellent book.

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Great book! Super interesting and well narrated

I really liked the way the author examined mental health without a lot of bias, finger pointing, or worst of all, stigma. Even as someone in the field of psychology, I still learned some things about depression, anxiety, and SI.

I like both this authors books on Amazon. I just wish he’d write and narrate more!

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Very little about the plane crash

I don’t know who this guy is that wrote this, I just wanted something about a plane crash, instead it’s some whinny, probably millennial, talking about how rich people are bad, everyone is a victim, and asking if we can really blame a mass murderer for his actions. Just nonsense garbage written by some dumb hippie. Returned.

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