Officials: Co-pilot researched suicide online
He also sought info on cockpit doors
BERLIN — The co-pilot thought to have deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 had been trawling the Internet for ways to commit suicide and had sought information online about the safety mechanisms on cockpit doors, German prosecutors said Thursday.
The information on Andreas Lubitz’s surfing activity came as another break in the case emerged in France, where authorities said Thursday that they had found the second of the Airbus A320’s two “black boxes” among the pulverized wreckage in the French Alps.
German officials said Lubitz had used his iPad between March 16 and 23 to search for information on “ways and implementation possibilities of killing himself,” as well as other unspecified “medical treatment methods.” On at least one day, investigators said, his browsing history also showed that he had spent “several minutes” on a site explaining the workings of cockpit locks and security systems.
The iPad had been seized by investigators, along with several of Lubitz’s belongings last week.
The new details added to an emerging picture of the co-pilot as a deeply troubled 27-year old who was battling serious mental health problems before stepping into the cockpit of Flight 9525, which was en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, on March 24. All 144 passengers and six crew members aboard the plane died in the crash.
Authorities have previously said that, among his seized possessions, they found prescription medications that showed he was being treated for psychological problems, including depression.
The announcement Thursday added to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the co-pilot’s mental state had severely deteriorated before the crash. On Tuesday, Lufthansa — the parent of Germanwings — said it had been informed in 2009, when he returned from a months-long break in his training, that Lubitz had previously suffered an “episode of severe depression.” The admission came several days after Lufthansa said it had received no prior information about his medical condition.
Lubitz, officials said, also had sought treatment for vision issues, though it remains unclear whether such problems were real or psychosomatic. On Thursday, Germany’s Bild newspaper, citing investigators, reported that Lubitz had told doctors his vision problems may have stemmed from a car crash in 2014, when the airbag in his vehicle went off. Lubitz said he has suffered “blast trauma” from the incident, saying his vision, at times, was darkening. But an MRI, the paper said, did not show a real problem.
German authorities did not provide further details about which websites Lubitz had visited or what search terms he had used. Authorities were still plumbing through the items seized from Lubitz’s two homes, in Montabaur and Düsseldorf, including a laptop computer.