Juliane dies in Germanwings crash: "My daughter's last twelve minutes are being concealed"

Prads-Haute-Bléone (France)/Halle (Saale) - Almost exactly ten years ago, Frank Noack and his wife Jana lost their daughter Juliane in the Germanwings crash , which has still not been fully investigated . The relatives of the 150 people who died still have questions, and the authorities still seem to be stonewalling. But why?

Frank Noack lost his pregnant daughter Juliane in the crash.
Frank Noack lost his pregnant daughter Juliane in the crash.  © Sky/The Thursday Company

"I heard it on the radio and thought to myself: these poor people, what's happening, it's terrible," says Frank Noack in the new Sky documentary "Germanwings - What happened on board flight 9525". He had not yet made a connection with his daughter.

His wife Jana calls her husband and tells him to get in touch with her when he is at home in Halle an der Saale. There he switches on the TV and sees a report of the crash on the news. "I saw a graphic of a plane flying a curve, crashing, and at that moment I realized: Juliane was in it, she's dead," he says, before tears well up in his eyes.

Only after the TV report does he speak to his wife, who tells him what he already knows. "We sat on the couch and stared at each other - that was it." They left the TV off afterwards. "We couldn't bear it, we didn't want to see it."

What is particularly tragic is that the Noacks not only lost their daughter, but will also never be able to meet their unborn grandchild.

Frank Noack "furious" about press conference by father of deceased co-pilot Andreas Lubitz

The crash was repeatedly recreated in a simulator.
The crash was repeatedly recreated in a simulator.  © Sky/The Thursday Company

The fact that only two days later the French public prosecutor in charge confirmed an extended suicide by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (†27) as the cause was "unimaginable" for the family.

It was important for Frank Noack to speak to one of the people who worked at the crash site. "My thoughts were often with them, what a terrible experience they had to go through, digging around in that dirt, looking for human remains and then cataloging them." A conversation was made possible.

The bereaved father struggles to find the words again: "The man thanked me and cried. That was a beautiful but difficult moment."

Less pleasant for him was the press conference on the second anniversary of the tragedy, of which there are other theories besides the not 100 percent confirmed extended suicide of the co-pilot, who possibly took 149 other people with him to their deaths.

Noack was "furious" at the way Günter Lubitz had tried to protect his son - something that can certainly be understood in his place.

Germanwings crash: Why were all data carriers deliberately deleted?

The crash site on March 15, 2015. According to an eyewitness, the mountain swallowed the plane, leaving "only confetti".
The crash site on March 15, 2015. According to an eyewitness, the mountain swallowed the plane, leaving "only confetti".  © Sky/The Thursday Company

To this day, there are still no answers to many unanswered questions for the countless bereaved. Why were the data carriers in cell phones and cameras supposedly deleted professionally? Why did the authorities claim to the mourners that they were destroyed in the crash?

Was there, as described in some other theories, a defect in the cockpit door and was Lubitz alone in the cockpit unconscious and therefore did not deliberately crash the plane? The German public prosecutor's office has "no knowledge" of such a defect, as confirmed in the documentary.

Although Frank Noack could still sue today, he had lost faith that anything could come of it. "There is far too much stonewalling for that. My daughter's last twelve minutes are being kept secret. I feel betrayed."

Trailer for the Sky documentary "Germanwings - What happened on board flight 9525?"

The three-part documentary "Germanwings - What happened on board flight 9525?" can be seenexclusively on Sky and on the streaming service WOWfrom March 14.