A mourning band is fixed at the wall in Dusseldorf airport, Germany on March 28, 2015. A Germanwings A320 flight crashed into southern French Alps en route from Spain's Barcelona to Germany's Duesseldorf on Tuesday. None of the 144 passengers and six crew members on board was expected to survive. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)
BERLIN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The co-pilot suspected of intentionally crashing Germanwings' A320 aircraft in southern French Alps had told his girlfriend that he was planning to take a striking move so "everyone will know my name and remember it," German media reported on Saturday.
A woman who claimed to have had a relationship with Andreas Lubitz in 2014 talked with the Bild newspaper, a German daily, and recalled some conversations she had with Lubitz, who was believed by French prosecutors to have deliberately crashed flight 4U9525 on Tuesday after locking the captain out of the cockpit, killing all 150 people on board.
The woman, with a pseudonym of Maria W., said when she heard about the crash, she remembered he had said "one day I'll do something" and "everyone will know my name and remember it."
The woman, who is a flight attendant, said Lubitz was in psychiatric treatment and would become upset when talking about working conditions. He was fearful that he might lose the job due to his health problems, she said.
The University Hospital of Dusseldorf said Friday in a statement that Lubitz visited the hospital as a patient in February 2015 and his last visit was on March 10 for "diagnostic evaluation."
It declined to provide details about his condition but denied previous media reports that it had treated the 27-year-old pilot for depression.
The hospital said it had handed over the medical records to the Dusseldorf prosecutor, who announced earlier on Friday that a torn-up sick leave note was found in the co-pilot's residence in the western German city.
According to the Dusseldorf prosecutor, the sick leave note was valid for the day the crash happened. Documents containing medical information that "indicates an existing disease and appropriate medical treatment" were also found in the co-pilot's home.
The prosecutor made the assumption that the co-pilot "concealed his illness toward his employer and his occupational environment."
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said earlier that the co-pilot had passed all the company's medical tests and was "100 percent fit to fly with no restriction." However, he admitted that there was no regular psychological checks for Lufthansa and Germanwings' pilots.
Lubitz had also sought treatment for vision problems that might have impeded his ability to work as a pilot, The New York Times on Saturday quoted officials as saying.
A number of European airlines have announced adopting new cockpit rules that require two authorized people to be in the cockpit of planes at all times, following French investigators' discovery from analyzing black box audio recording that the German co-pilot deliberately locked his captain out of the cockpit and crashed the plane.
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Could crash of Germanwings flight have been averted?
FRANKFURT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The crash of the Germanwings flight could be averted, but only in theory, not in reality, and this situation highlights the dilemma in which airlines can hardly find a solution, an expert has said.Full Story
Hospital confirms to have Germanwings co-pilot as patient
BERLIN, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A hospital in Duesseldorf said on Friday that the co-pilot believed to have deliberately crashed Germanwings A320 flight on Tuesday had been a patient there in the last two months.
The University Hospital of Duesseldorf said in a statement that Andreas Lubitz, who was identified by French prosecutor as the co-pilot in the crashed Germanwings 4U9525 flight, visited the hospital as a patient in February 2015 and his last visit was on March 10, 2015.
The hospital said Lubitz was receiving a diagnosis evaluation, but refused to disclose more details.Full Story
