Pilot who deliberately crashed plane told Lufthansa of his ‘severe depression’
The German pilot who crashed a plane in the French Alps told officials at a Lufthansa training school in 2009 that he had gone through a period of severe depression.
The German pilot who crashed a plane in the French Alps last week, killing 150 people, told officials at a Lufthansa training school in 2009 that he had gone through a period of severe depression, the airline said.
The statement issued on Tuesday ia potentially damaging for the airline and its CEO Carsten Spohr, who told reporters last week that the carrier knew of no reason why 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz might deliberately crash a plane.
The fact that Lufthansa officials were aware that Lubitz suffered from depression raises questions about its screening process for pilots as it faces the threat of legal action from relatives of the victims.
Lufthansa said Lubitz broke off his pilot training for a period of several months but then passed medical checks confirming his fitness to fly.
When Lubitz resumed training in 2009, he provided the flight school with medical documents showing that he had gone through a “previous episode of severe depression”, Lufthansa said, citing emailed correspondence between Lubitz and the flight school.