Maybe most horrifying is that the passengers would have been aware that something was wrong because they would have seen the locked-out pilot swinging an object against the door. There supposedly exists [footage](<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/01/germanwings-passenger-video-authentic-paris-match" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/01/germanwings-pa...</a>) that passengers recorded of the plane's final moments with their phones, which survived the crash.
"He had set the autopilot to descend to 100 ft (30 m) and accelerated the speed of the descending aircraft several times thereafter."<p>Is that something that would be used during normal operations, or in an emergency landing? If not, why is it a permitted action?
He looked for other avenues of suicide, and seeing no way out, chose that one. I know you can call it a premeditated mass murder, but when you don't even value your own life how can you value the life of others? I doubt they even registered in his mind.