Germanwings co-pilot was a psycho, say latest reports
27 Mar 2015
The pilot who appears to have deliberately crashed the Germanwings plane into the French Alps killing all 150 on board received psychiatric treatment for a "serious depressive episode" six years ago, German tabloid Der Bild reported today.
The report came even as German investigators searched the home of the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz and took several objects and papers that may be evidence that will reveal more information on why he "deliberately" flew a plane into the French Alps.
''Authorities searched in Montabaur and Dusseldorf, Germany. Objects taken will be examined, "which might lead to more information," said Marcel Siebig of Dusseldorf police.
According to latest reports, transponder data showed the autopilot was reprogrammed by someone in the cockpit to change the plane's altitude from 38,000 feet to 100 feet, according to Flightradar24, a website that tracks aviation data.
"We at Lufthansa are speechless that this aircraft has been deliberately crashed by the co-pilot," said Carsten Spohr, chief executive of Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings – thus virtually confirming that the co-pilot had gone rogue.
Prosecutors in France, after listening to the cockpit voice recorders, offered no motive for why Lubitz, 27, would take the controls of the Airbus A320, lock the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set it down from its cruising altitude at 3,000 feet per minute.
Citing internal documents and Lufthansa sources, Bild said Lubitz spent a total of one and a half years in psychiatric treatment and that the relevant documents would be passed to French investigators once they had been examined by German authorities.
Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr told a news conference on Thursday that Lubitz had taken a break during his training six years ago, but did not explain why and said he had passed all tests to be fit to fly.
"Six years ago there was a lengthy interruption in his training. After he was cleared again, he resumed training. He passed all the subsequent tests and checks with flying colours. His flying abilities were flawless," Spohr said.
A Lufthansa spokeswoman said on Friday the airline would not comment on the state of health of the pilot.
