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Andreas Lubitz Appeared ‘100 Percent Flightworthy,’ Lufthansa Says Andreas Lubitz Appeared ‘100 Percent Flightworthy,’ Lufthansa Says
(about 2 hours later)
He was 27 years old, loved to fly and apparently set off no alarms or showed signs that he was troubled – or worse. He was 27, loved to fly and apparently raised no suspicions or showed obvious signs that he was troubled.
The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, which crashed into the Alps en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf on Tuesday, has been identified as Andreas Lubitz, a German who grew up in the Rhineland town of Montabaur. The co-pilot of the fatal Germanwings Flight 9525 from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, on Tuesday was identified as Andreas Lubitz, who grew up in Montabaur, a Rhineland town of some 15,000 people, a neat, pretty place of timber and brick homes in western Germany.
On Thursday, a French prosecutor said Mr. Lubitz had deliberately set out to “destroy the aircraft” by putting it on a descent path and ignoring the increasingly frantic knocks on a locked cockpit door by the pilot, who had stepped out for a few minutes, leaving Mr. Lubitz at the controls alone. In a tragedy full of unanswered questions from the moment he was said to have turned the Airbus A320’s nose downward over the French Alps on Tuesday morning, Mr. Lubitz has emerged as the most terrifying mystery of all.
Officials at Germanwings and its parent company, Lufthansa, provided a bare-bones description of Mr. Lubitz — and said his motivation, if he had committed such a horrendous act, remained a mystery to them, as well. As the world absorbed the news Thursday that he is said to have suicidally or murderously driven the jetliner into a mountainside, taking 149 people to their deaths along with him, the focus turned to what had driven him to such an act — and to whether the airline industry and regulators do enough to screen pilots for psychological problems.
“We have no indication what could have led the co-pilot to commit this terrible act,” said Carsten Spohr, head of Lufthansa, at a news conference near the Germanwings headquarters in Cologne, just hours after the prosecutor described the last minutes of the flight. “Such an isolated act can never be completely ruled out. The best system in the world can’t stop it.” There were few immediate answers or easily discernible signs of a young man in trouble, only a small, unexplained gap in his training record.
Officials said Mr. Lubitz was accepted into the pilot training program in 2008, and did his training in Bremen, Germany, and in Phoenix. Martin Riecken, a Lufthansa spokesman, said, “Every Lufthansa pilot does part of their training in Phoenix, simply because the weather there is so good and conditions are good for flying.” Peter Rücker, a member of the flight club where Mr. Lubitz learned to fly, told Reuters television on Thursday that he knew the young man as a cheerful, careful pilot, and that he could not imagine him committing such an act.
The flight-school program usually lasts from a year and a half to two years, and includes a few months in Phoenix doing real flying in small training aircraft as well as simulator and classroom work, he said. But Mr. Lubitz interrupted his training at one point, for an unknown reason, Mr. Spohr said. If the cause was medical, he said, he would not know because of German rules on privacy for medical records. Online, Mr. Lubitz appeared to be a keen runner, including at Lufthansa’s Frankfurt sports club, and had completed several half-marathons and other medium-distance races, including an annual New Year’s run in Montabaur in 2014.
Mr. Lubitz eventually completed his training and passed all medical and flying tests, joining Germanwings as a pilot in 2013. He worked as an airline steward for 11 months after he completed his training and was waiting for a pilot’s slot, Mr. Spohr said, adding that this was not unusual. A Facebook page with a few tidbits of his possible “likes” was visible Wednesday but had been removed by late morning on Thursday. It showed a photograph of a young man near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, though there were no clues to when the image was taken or any other details.
At the time of the crash, the co-pilot had 630 hours of flying experience, according to Mr. Riecken. “He was 100 percent flightworthy without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said. Mr. Lubitz’s flying career began at the flight club’s grassy landing strip outside Montabaur that features a small corrugated hangar with peeling paint and an attached control tower no more than three stories high. The facility has more the air of a clubhouse than an airstrip.
Brice Robin, the Marseilles prosecutor who accused Mr. Lubitz of having acted deliberately, said there was no indication that the destruction of the airliner was a terrorist attack. He said Mr. Lubitz had not been known to law enforcement officials. Later, the German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said a check of records had found no terrorism links for anyone on board the plane. He lived, at least part time, with his parents. Mr. Lubitz’s mother was an organist at a Protestant church near the town center.
Mr. Lubitz was a member of a flying club near Montabaur, which posted a short death notice for “Andreas” on its website. It said that he had joined as a 14-year-old and that he had long dreamed of being a pilot Officials at Germanwings and its parent company, Lufthansa, provided a bare-bones description of Mr. Lubitz on Thursday — and insisted that his motivation, had he committed such a horrendous act, remained a mystery to them.
On Thursday, members of the club told The Associated Press that he had appeared to be enthusiastic about flying. “He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well,” a club member, Peter Ruecker, told The e A.P. “He was very happy. He gave off a good feeling.” “We have no indication what could have led the co-pilot to commit this terrible act,” said Carsten Spohr, the head of Lufthansa, at a news conference near the Germanwings headquarters in Cologne, just hours after a French prosecutor had described in vivid detail the harrowing last minutes of the flight. “Such an isolated act can never be completely ruled out. The best system in the world can’t stop it.”
“Andreas became a member of the club as a youth to fulfill his dream of flying,” the LSC Westerwald club said on its website. Officials said Mr. Lubitz was accepted into the pilot training program in 2008 and did his training in Bremen, as well as in the United States.
“He fulfilled his dream, the dream he now paid so dearly with his life,” the club said. Martin Riecken, a Lufthansa spokesman, said, “Every Lufthansa pilot does part of their training in Phoenix, simply because the weather there is so good and conditions are good for flying.”
The flight-school program usually lasts a year and a half to two years, and includes a few months in Arizona doing real flying in small training aircraft, as well as simulator and classroom work, he said. The Airline Training Center Arizona, an arm of Lufthansa, has trained the German airline’s pilots for more than 40 years, according to its website.
The Phoenix area is home to a large number of flight schools, which take advantage of the region’s usually clear sky. The pilot who crashed a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, did his flight training in Arizona.
Mr. Lubitz interrupted his training for several months at one point, for an unknown reason, Mr. Spohr said. If the cause was medical, he said, he would not know because German rules on privacy prevented the sharing of such information. Those records would, however, be available to prosecutors.
Mr. Lubitz waited 11 months for a pilot’s slot after completing his training, filling the time by working as an airline steward, said Mr. Spohr, adding that there was nothing unusual about that. He eventually joined Germanwings as a co-pilot in fall 2013 and had notched 630 hours flying, Mr. Riecken said.
“He was 100 percent flightworthy without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said.
The issue of pilot health has long been a concern in the industry. In the United States, pilots are screened for medical or psychological problems before being hired, and are randomly tested afterward for drug and alcohol use. They must undergo medical examinations once or twice a year, depending on their age, to keep their certification with the Federal Aviation Administration.
They are supposed to disclose all physical and psychological conditions and medications or face significant fines. In addition to this “self-reporting” standard, most airlines also rely on other crew members to report suspicious behavior or monitor the health of their co-workers.
“I think that this incident is going to have a profound effect on the industry and how pilots are screened on an ongoing basis and what they are screened for,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director at the National Transportation Safety Board.
“In the U.S., pilots are pretty much allowed to choose their own doctor,” he said, out of a list of approved practitioners. “It’s not the most rigorous process.”
Late Thursday, the police started searching Mr. Lubitz’s parents’ home in Montabaur, and in the Ruhr city of Düsseldorf, which is a Germanwings hub in western Germany.
In Düsseldorf, Mr. Lubitz lived on the upper floor of a three-story apartment house in a leafy residential area on the outskirts, roughly halfway between its airport and the one in Cologne. Neighbors had hung a German flag at half-staff on a lamppost.
Markus Niesczery, a spokesman for the Düsseldorf police, said five officers were scouring the apartment Thursday afternoon. The search was carried out at the request of French prosecutors, he said.
“We are combing the place in hopes of finding any indication of a motive,” Mr. Niesczery said.
Brice Robin, the French prosecutor, said that Mr. Lubitz was not known to law enforcement officials, and nothing else about the destruction of the airliner indicated that it was a terrorist attack. Later, the German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said all records had been checked and no one on board turned up with terror links.
The flying club posted a short death notice for “Andreas” on its website. It said that he had joined as a 14-year-old and that he had long dreamed of being a pilot.
On Thursday, Mr. Rücker said Mr. Lubitz had seemed “happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well.”
“He gave off a good feeling,” Mr. Rücker told The Associated Press.
“Andreas became a member of the club as a youth to fulfill his dream of flying,” the LSC Westerwald club said in the death notice that appeared on its website before Mr. Robin indicated that Mr. Lubitz deliberately caused the crash. Mr. Lubitz, the notice said, “fulfilled his dream, the dream he now paid so dearly with his life.”
Some airline personnel took to chat rooms to express skepticism about the prosecutor and airlines’ account. None indicated in their comments that they personally knew Mr. Lubitz.
Reaction among those close to the victims was far angrier, and more bewildered.
“I am asking when this nightmare in which we find ourselves is finally going to end,” said Bodo Klimpel, the mayor of Haltern am See, the small Ruhr town which lost 16 high school students and two teachers in the crash. “I am stunned, furious, speechless and deeply shocked.”