Crash co-pilot had been treated for suicidal thoughts
Print Edition
THE Germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a plane in the French Alps last week had been treated in the past for suicidal tendencies, German state prosecutors said yesterday.
“Several years ago before obtaining his pilot’s license, the co-pilot was in a long period of psychotherapeutic treatment with noticeable suicidal tendencies,” the prosecutors’ office in Duesseldorf, where the pilot Andreas Lubitz lived and where the flight from Barcelona was heading, said in a statement.
The prosecutors’ office, which quoted “relevant medical documentation” as the basis for its findings, added that since that period Lubitz had not shown any signs of suicidal behavior or aggressive tendencies toward others in visits to doctors.
The Germanwings Airbus crashed into a remote area of the French Alps last Tuesday, killing everyone on board.
Investigators believe 27-year-old Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on a collision course with the mountainside.
The prosecutors said they had not found any evidence that Lubitz was planning such a move, or anything that would suggest the reason behind it.
“No special circumstances have come to light, whether in his personal life or his work life, that shed any plausible light on a possible motive,” the prosecutors’ statement said.
A spokeswoman for Lufthansa, parent company of Germanwings, said medical records were subject to doctor-patient confidentiality and that the airline therefore had no knowledge of what they contained.
Under German law, employers do not have access to employees’ medical records and sick notes excusing a person from work also do not give information on medical conditions.
French investigators said yesterday they were digging an access route to the mountain crash site in order to speed up the investigation. The plane’s second flight recorder, which contains flight data, has not yet been found.
Kay Kratky, a board member of Lufthansa’s German airlines unit, told a German talkshow on Sunday that, due to the force with which the plane hit the mountain, it was possible the recorder’s locator beacons had been damaged and were not working properly.
“I am hopeful that we will find the recorder by physical searching,” he said.
Separately, police in Duesseldorf said a full evaluation of items removed from Lubitz’s homes would take some time.
Meanwhile, investigators searching through the wreckage of the doomed Germanwings plane were forced to resume the hunt on foot yesterday as bad weather hampered helicopter flights.
“The teams will get to the site via the path that is already in existence,” said Yves Naffrechoux of the local mountain police.
Authorities are hoping to identify more DNA strands from the 150 people who died in the crash, as well as locate the jet’s second black box that should provide more clues as to the circumstances of the tragedy.
Forensic teams have isolated almost 80 distinct DNA strands from the wreckage and have described the grim task as “unprecedented” given the tricky mountain terrain and the speed at which the plane smashed into the rock.
The flight, from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, crashed into the mountainside at 700 kilometers an hour, instantly killing all on board.
Authorities are hoping to build a sturdier road to the crash site to ease access for forensic experts and for families who want to see where their loved ones perished. A bulldozer and several specialized machines were already working away at the site.
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