Co-pilot of Germanwings aircraft was depressed

Co-pilot of Germanwings aircraft was depressed

German media reports say the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane who “intentionally” crashed the aircraft in the French Alps suffered from depression and anxiety.

The German daily Bild reported that Andreas Lubitz was seeking professional help to cope with his condition in 2009, adding that the co-pilot was still under medical treatment for his psychiatric disease at the time of the incident.

Earlier, French prosecutor Brice Robin, who is in charge of the crash investigations, revealed that the crash was intentional after his team examined the plane’s audio black box.

“The co-pilot, through a deliberate act, refused to open the door of the cockpit to the commander, and activated the button that commands the loss of altitude,” he said.

The Airbus A320 aircraft, operated by Germanwings, a low-cost subsidiary of Germany’s flag-bearer, Lufthansa, disappeared off the radar at about 1030 GMT on March 24, about halfway on its route from the Spanish city of Barcelona to Dusseldorf in Germany. Eight minutes later the plane crashed into the French Alps,killing all 150 people on board.

The investigators said they were still trying to determine for sure why the captain had left the cockpit and why Lubitz, aged 27, would commit such a deliberate act.

However, the prosecutor’s assertions have already led to the change in the nature of the investigation of the crash that killed people from more than a dozen countries, including two sports journalists from Iran. The German police are searching his house for evidence that might offer some explanation for what was behind the crash.

In 1999, an EgyptAir flight from the United States to Egypt crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 passengers on board, due to what investigators said had been the co-pilot’s “manipulation of the airplane controls.”

Following the recent incident some airlines have applied the “rule of two” to their flights, ensuring two crew members were in plane cockpit at all times.