Surprised we havent got a thread for yet but here we are. Summary is that the recording of crashed plane two days back revealed that the pilot was locked out of cockpit while the co-pilot for still inside and apparently was breathing normally. He didnt open the door and push the button to make the plane dive resulting in crash.
Now, as more is digged in, they found that the copilot had a medical history which he hid from airlines.
And this whole thing is making the air travel so scary now. People would hv less trust now, not that they have any choice though.
Co-Pilot in Germanwings Crash Hid Medical Condition From Employer, Prosecutors Say
By MELISSA EDDY, DAN BILEFSKY and NICOLA CLARKMARCH 27, 2015
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Flowers at the monument in memory of the 150 victims of the Germanwings crash in Le Vernet, in the French Alps, on Friday. CreditAlberto Estevez/European Pressphoto Agency
DÜSSELDORF, Germany — Documents show that Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who is believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings jet into the French Alps on Tuesday, had a medical condition that he hid from his employer, prosecutors here said on Friday.
Prosecutors said that among the items found at Mr. Lubitz’s home was a doctor’s note excusing him from work on the day of the crash, and another note that had been torn up. These documents “support the preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues,” the prosecutors said in a statement.
The German investigators said they had not found a suicide note or “any indication of a political or religious” nature among the documents from Mr. Lubitz’s apartment. “However, documents were secured containing medical information that indicates an illness and corresponding treatment by doctors,” Ralf Herrenbrück, a spokesman for prosecutors in Düsseldorf, said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Office of Germany said on Friday that a medical certificate issued to Mr. Lubitz that allowed him to fly noted that he had a medical condition, although it did not specify whether it was related to a psychological issue.
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Prosecutor Says Co-Pilot ‘Hid Illness’
Prosecutor Says Co-Pilot ‘Hid Illness’
The German state prosecutor, Christoph Kumpa, said the preliminary investigation into Andreas Lubitz indicated that the Germanwings Airbus A320 co-pilot hid an existing illness from his employer.
Video by Reuters on Publish DateMarch 27, 2015. Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters.
Investigators have been combing through Mr. Lubitz’s background, including whether he might have had a history of depression or psychological problems. They are also looking into potential financial troubles or difficulties in his personal relationships.
Prosecutors said that a thorough assessment of the documents as well as further questioning would take several days.
Mr. Lubitz, 27, is believed to be responsible for slamming Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountainside in the French Alps on purpose, killing all 150 on board, while en route to Düsseldorf from Barcelona, Spain. Prosecutors are examining several theories, including that the crash was a suicide or a mass murder.
In Mr. Lubitz’s hometown, Montabaur, people who knew him or his parents said that the co-pilot had a girlfriend who had gone with her family to a hotel to escape the news media. The people declined to be identified and said they did not want to be quoted further, to protect the privacy of the family.
Markus Niesczery, a spokesman for the Düsseldorf police, said on Friday that there was a second name on the doorbell of Mr. Lubitz’s apartment in the city, but he declined to elaborate. “It is not clear whether this means that another person is living at this residence,” Mr. Niesczery said.
On Thursday, the French prosecutor leading the investigation said the evidence from the cockpit voice recorder suggested that Mr. Lubitz, a former flight attendant with a passion for flying, had locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on its lethal descent.
The crash claimed victims from more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Spain and the United States.
Police officers and rescue workers on Friday continued to search the site of the crash for victims’ remains, along with other clues and DNA that could help them identify those who died in the crash.
In an interview with the French broadcaster i-Télé, Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France said it was incumbent upon Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, to reveal as much information as possible to help “understand why this pilot got to the point of this horrific action.”
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Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings jetliner that crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, ran a half marathon in Hamburg, Germany, in 2009.CreditFoto-Team-Mueller, via ReutersHe said that no theory for what happened could be discarded, and that the authorities were still determining how to characterize what had happened and whether it was “criminal,” “crazy” or “suicidal.”
Separately, President Joachim Gauck of Germany attended a memorial service in Haltern am See on Friday for the 16 high school students and two teachers who died in the crash, German news reports said. He was accompanied by the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hannelore Kraft. He was also to meet with friends and families of the victims.
Carsten Spohr, the chief executive of Lufthansa, said on Thursday that Mr. Lubitz had passed the company’s health checks with “flying colors.”
“He was 100 percent flightworthy, without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said.
But he said there had been an instance six years ago when Mr. Lubitz took a break from his training for several months. He said that if the reason was medical, German rules on privacy prevented the sharing of such information. Mr. Spohr said the revelation of Mr. Lubitz’s actions had left him stunned.
Some international airlines responded to the crash by introducing new rules requiring that two crew members always be present in the cockpit, after the French prosecutor revealed that Mr. Lubitz had locked the plane’s pilot out of the cockpit before starting the deadly descent. The airlines that said they were instituting a two-person rule in the cockpit included Air Canada, easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
All German airlines will introduce that requirement, the German aviation association said on Friday.
Thomas Winkelmann, the head of Germanwings, however, expressed doubt that such a rule would have prevented Tuesday’s crash.
“I ask myself, when a person is so bent on committing a criminal act, whether that is preventable, if for example a stewardess or steward is in the cockpit,” Mr. Winkelmann told the German public broadcaster ZDF on Thursday.
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What Happened on the Germanwings Flight
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“The suffering and pain this catastrophe has caused is immeasurable,” he was quoted as saying in a message posted on Twitter by Germanwings on Friday. “No words can express it and no amount of consolation is sufficient.”
Investigators are still trying to understand why the pilot left the cockpit, although most airlines allow it during noncritical phases of flight. There are no regulations requiring that a second crew member be present in the cockpit when one pilot leaves, usually for physiological reasons. The French prosecutor, Brice Robin, said it was reasonable to assume the pilot left the cockpit to use the toilet.
Members of a flight crew would typically use a numeric code to open the door if someone in the cockpit could not or would not let them in. The pilot would have known the code, Mr. Spohr said. However, the co-pilot could have activated a switch that prevents the door from opening for five minutes, or he could have found some other way to block the door, Mr. Spohr said.
Mr. Robin said that the Germanwings flight had begun prosaically, with polite exchanges between the two pilots as the flight began its course to Düsseldorf.
However, about a half-hour into the flight, he said that Mr. Lubitz appeared to have locked out the pilot of the plane and did not let him back in, prompting the pilot to demand access. Investigators, citing the plane’s voice recorder, said they could hear the sound of someone trying to break down the door.
Mr. Robin said the plane’s voice recorder showed that Mr. Lubitz was breathing normally in the moments leading up to the crash, indicating that he had deliberately crashed the plane.
The State Department confirmed on Thursday that a third American, Robert Oliver, had been on board the aircraft.
Mr. Oliver, 37, had been working for more than four years for Desigual, a fashion company based in Barcelona, where he was tasked with steering the company’s expansion in Germany, including finding locations for new shops. Another Desigual employee, Laura Altamira, also died in the crash.
Mr. Oliver was married and had two children. His father had moved to Spain more than 40 years ago, said Cristina Gispert, a spokeswoman for Desigual.
American officials said on Friday that the F.B.I. was sending a team to France to join the inquiry.
Melissa Eddy reported from Düsseldorf, and Dan Bilefsky and Nicola Clark from Paris. Alison Smale contributed reporting from Berlin, Jack Ewing from Montabaur, Germany, and Raphael Minder from Barcelona, Spain.
