Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz who crashed an airplane with 150 people on board into the French alps had been dumped by his girlfriend the day prior to the tragic event.
Lubitz was undergoing treatment for depression from a doctor. The co-pilot who deliberately crashed the Germanwings Airbus 320 was treated by a neuropsychologist for depression. The doctor offered Lubitz a note excusing him from the work the day of the crash but the co-pilot reported to work, ignoring the advice.
Lubitz, 27, and his girlfriend of 7 years lived together an apartment in Dusseldorf and had plans to get married in 2016, according to the New York Post. The fiance ended the relationship.
French authorities announced Thursday that Lubitz was the only one to blame for Tuesday’s crash, explaining that he locked the captain of the flight out of the cabin and then set the auto-pilot to descend to its lowest setting. All the 150 people on board were killed when the plane hit the French Alps at 6,000 feet. The aircraft had started its descent at 38,000. The captain tried to bring down the locked door by using an axe, but he couldn’t enter the cabin.
German newspaper Bild identified the former girlfriend as “Maria, 26,” who also said Lubitz would wake up in the middle of the night and scream “We’re crashing!” According to her, the co-pilot used to say: ‘One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember it.’
According to German journalists, Lubitz tried to conceal his depression, but he didn’t fear losing his medical classification as being fit to fly even if his pilot’s license was up for renewal in July and it would have been threatened by his mental illness.
The source added that Lubitz was not taking “mind-altering” medication that could have blurred his judgment in the cockpit.
University Hospital Dusseldorf said that Lubitz was a patient at the hospital in February and his last visit was on March 10. The hospital added that the media reports that it was for depression were “incorrect”, while refusing to say what the treatment was for, citing patient confidentiality.
Bild added that Lubitz had been labeled as “not suitable for flying” by his instructors at Lufthansa’s training school in Arizona back in 2009. At the thime, Lubitz spent 18 months receiving psychiatric treatment and was diagnosed with a “severe depressive episode”.
Image Source: ABC News
