WHY ON EARTH WAS HE ALLOWED TO FLY?
Suicide pilot had a long history of depression
THE airline boss of the killer Alps pilot admitted he had slipped through the ‘safety net’ and should never have been flying. As police removed computer equipment from Andreas Lubitz’s flat, it emerged the 28-year- old fitness fanatic had suffered from depression and ‘burnout’ which had held up his career.
But, incredibly, he passed all his psychological assessments and was considered fit to fly. Yesterday prosecutors revealed chilling recordings from the doomed Germanwings Airbus A320 showing that piano teacher’s son Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit so he could crash the plane into an Alpine ravine, killing his 149 passengers.
Prosecutors said the screams of passengers aware of their fate could be heard in the final seconds.
in a blunt admission, carsten Spohr, the head of Lufthansa which owns the budget airline, admitted Lubitz had slipped through the safety net with devastating consequences.
‘The pilot had passed all his tests, all his medical exams,’ he said. ‘He was 100 per cent fit to fly without any restrictions. We have at Lufthansa, a reporting system where crew can report – without
being punished – their own problems, or they can report about the problems of others without any kind of punishment. All the safety nets we are all so proud of here have not worked in this case.’
Yesterday, as repercussions of Tuesday’s tragedy sent shockwaves through the airline industry: ÷ Airlines across Europe reviewed safety rules and insisted that no pilot should be left alone in the cockpit; ÷ Police urgently probed the background of Lubitz amid rumours that his personal life was seriously troubled; ÷ Detectives said they had made a ‘significant discovery’ during a four-hour search of his flat, but insisted it was not a suicide note.
Last night police raided Lubitz’s family home in a small town north of Frankfurt and an apartment in Dusseldorf, taking away a computer, laptop and other files.
A spokesman said: ‘We have found something which will now be taken for tests. It may be a very significant clue.’ Airline chiefs confirmed Lubitz, who won an award for ‘outstanding’ aviation skills and dubbed himself ‘Flying Andy’, took several months off work in
008 and had to retrain to join Germanwings. They are said to have been ‘stunned’ by the revelation that Lubitz waited for his captain to visit the toilet – and then locked him out.
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said Lubitz barricaded himself in the cockpit and manually put the plane into a gradual descent.
‘It was absolute silence in the cockpit,’ Mr Robin said, apart from Lubitz’s breathing.
Pilot Patrick Sonderheimer began knocking – and then hammering – on the door, while air traffic controllers watching the descent towards the Alps on their screens made emergency calls. Mr Robin said Lubitz ignored them all. ‘His breath was not of somebody who was struggling. He never said a single word. It was total silence in the cockpit for the ten past minutes. Nothing.’
Mr Robin, who had earlier briefed the families of the dead – and separately those of both pilots – said the screams of passengers aware of their fate could be heard in the final seconds of the recording.
The tragedy has already led to a number of developments in the airline industry. The Civil Aviation Authority called on UK airline operators to review safety procedures, and easy Jet was among several airlines to introduce rules so that two crew members are in the cockpit at all times.
Lubitz’s father Gunter, a businessman, and mother, a piano teacher, have both been questioned by police and are said to be ‘devastated’ by the revelations. The mother of a former schoolmate of Lubitz said he had told her daughter he had taken a break from pilot training because he was suffering from depression. ‘Apparently he had a burnout,’ she added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the revelations gave the tragedy a ‘new, simply incomprehensible dimension’.
‘He never said a single word’