Friday, March 27, 2015

Alps plane crash: Germanwings and Lufthansa facing questions over the mental state of co-pilot


Questions are being asked about Germanwings and its parent airline Lufthansa over what they knew about the mental state of the co-pilot responsible for the French Alps plane disaster.


Andreas Lubitz, 28, who deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 after locking out his captain from the cockpit, had reportedly been battling mental health and Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr admitted Lubitz had taken a long break in his pilot training.


France's prime minister has called on Lufthansa to provide all information about Lubitz.


Manuel Valls said that Lufthansa should give the maximum of information "so that we can understand why this pilot got to the point of this horrific action".


Speaking on French TV Mr Valls said that nothing would be ruled out until the end of a full investigation.


According to German newspaper Bild, Lubitz was going through a "personal life crisis", while the Der Spiegel newspaper said he had taken a break in training because of "burnout syndrome".


Matthias Gebauer, chief correspondent for the online edition of German newspaper Der Spiegel, tweeted: "Schoolmates of co-pilot who crashed tell German reporters he took six months break from flight training in 2009 due to burnout syndrome."


Investigators carry boxes from the apartment of Germanwings airliner jet co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, in Duesseldorf, Germany, Thursday March 26, 2015. On Thursday, French prosecutors said Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, "intentionally" crashed the jet into the side of a mountain Tuesday in the French Alps. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)


Lubitz had been employed as a flight attendant when he first tried to become a pilot in 2008 after waiting for eight months, but did not start working as a first officer for Lufthansa until September 2013


While the relatives of the 150 people killed in last Tuesday's crash tried to come to terms with Lubitz's actions, German police have searched the co-pilot's home in Dusseldorf and seized material that will now be examined as part of the investigation.


There were also reports that police had removed items from a £400,000 home in Montabaur, a town 40 miles from Bonn, that Lubitz is believed to have shared with his parents.


Outlining evidence from the crashed plane's black box cockpit voice recorder, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said Lubitz had deliberately put the plane into a descent after the captain left the cockpit,


He had refused to allow him back in and had made no response to calls from the ground or from other planes.


In his startling account of the doomed plane's final half hour, Mr Robin said: "I think the victims only realised at the last moment because on the recording we only hear the screams on the last moments of the recording."


A person covered with a black blanket is led by police officers from the hours of the family of Andreas Lubitz to a police van in Montabaur, Germany, Thursday, March 26, 2015. Lubitz was the copilot on flight Germanwings 9525 that crashed with 150 people on board on Tuesday in the French Alps. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)


He added: "I believe that we owe the families the transparency of what the investigation is pointing to and what is going on, we owe it to them to tell them what happened.


"The families have been informed of everything I just told you."


Some airlines are changing procedures to ensure two crew members are in the cockpit at all times during flights following the disaster.


The UK's Civil Aviation Authority said it had contacted all UK operators to urge them to review safety procedures in the wake of the tragedy.


Monarch, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook all confirmed they had changed their policies, while Ryanair, Jet2 and Flybe said they already required two crew members to be in the cockpit at all times.


Germanwings said it was setting up a family assistance centre in Marseille. It added that family briefings will start tomorrow.


"Our focus in these darkest hours is to provide psychological assistance to the families and friends of the victims of flight 4U9525," said Thomas Winkelmann, spokesman for the Germanwings executive board.


He went on: "The suffering and pain this catastrophe has caused is immeasurable. No words can express it and no amount of consolation is sufficient but we want to be there for visiting family members and friends if our support is desired."



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