NEWSMAX / REUTER: The German pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps killing 150 people broke off his training six years ago due to depression and spent over a year in psychiatric treatment, a German newspaper reported on Friday.
The story in German tabloid Bild came a day after French prosecutors said they believed Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old co-pilot at Lufthansa’s budget airline Germanwings, had locked the captain out of the cockpit and steered the Airbus A320 airliner into its fatal descent.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr acknowledged at a news conference on Thursday that Lubitz had broken off his training in 2009 but did not explain why. He said there was nothing in the pilot’s background to suggest he was a risk… (more)
EDITOR: Our understanding is this is this may be the third case of planes crashing due to pilot suicide in the past five years. We may now be dealing with a rash of ‘copy cat’ murders. Flying no longer is as safe as it was before. Fortunately, U. S. regulations require two people in the cockpit at all times, with a flight steward present when a pilot leaves to use the bathroom.
