Pilot Hid Health Condition That Would Have Banned Flying

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is on the radar of investigators but early security checks did not notice any terrorist background.

Andreas Lubitz, the pilot who crashed a plane in the French Alpshad, received a sick note from doctors showing he suffered a health condition that would have prevented him flying the day of the crash, which he apparently hid from his employer, German prosecutors said.

“The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues,” the German prosecutors said.

“Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors,” said the prosecutors’ office in Duesseldorf, where the co-pilot lived and where the doomed flight from Barcelona was heading.

According to a German newspaper report, the German pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps, broke off his training six years ago due to depression. He then spent over a year in psychiatric treatment.

German tabloid Bild reported that Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old co-pilot at Lufthansa’s budget airline Germanwings, had locked the captain out of the cockpit and steered the Airbus A320 airliner into its fatal descent.

At a news conference on Thursday, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr acknowledged that Lubitz had broken off his training in 2009. He did not explain why but said there was nothing in the pilot’s background to suggest he was a risk.

But Bild, citing internal documents, reported that Lubitz had suffered from depression and anxiety, and had been judged to have suffered a “serious depressive episode” around the time he suspended his training.

Lufthansa and German prosecutors declined to comment on the report, which is likely to raise questions about the airline’s screening procedures for its pilots. And, if confirmed, it could expose the airline to substantial liabilities in the crash.

Mad Suicidal Action

“We must wait for the end of the inquiry. I am careful when there is a judicial inquiry, but everything points to a criminal, mad, suicidal action that we cannot comprehend,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday.

But a friend who met Lubitz six years ago and flew with him in gliding school, said he had become increasingly withdrawn over the past year.

“He always used to be a quiet companion, but in the last year that got worse,” he added.

After news of the crash, his local flight club in Montabaur put a black ribbon on its website with the flight number and the name “Andreas”. But the website was no longer accessible on Friday.

(Text inputs from Reuters)