Germanwings co-pilot Lubitz flew glider over alp crash area

28.03.2015 09:31

Andreas Lubitz was "passionate about the Alps, obsessed even” according to a member of his local flying club who went on holiday with him to the same region where the young co-pilot crashed Germanwings Flight 4U9525.

Lubitz had flown a glider over the area shortly before the "burnout"’ which caused a break of several months in his pilot training with Lufthansa.

The episode is being considered by investigators of the tragedy which claimed all 150 lives on board the Airbus A320 as they seek to piece together his state of mind.

The 27-year-old German had dreamt from a young age of becoming a pilot and opted for Lufthansa’s training program, rather than university, after finishing grammar school.

Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings and Europe’s biggest airline, announced a security shake-up yesterday by appointing a senior executive to review all on-board safety procedures.

As the airline sought to reassure passengers amid revelations that Lubitz was able to hide his true medical condition, more details emerged about the life of the quiet young man who was outwardly fulfilling his childhood flying dream.

"He was passionate about the Alps, obsessed even,” said Dieter Wagner, 70, a member of the Luftsportclub Westerwald, the gliding association where Lubitz first learnt to fly in his hometown of Montabaur, just 55 miles northwest of Lufthansa’s home base at Frankfurt.

"Andreas took part in a training course with my niece, who was a good friend of his, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region. I am certain that he knew the region of the crash because he had flown over it in a glider.”

The flying club confirmed that Lubitz had taken part in glider training sessions with a French partner club in Sisteron, less than 40 miles from the crash site. Mr Wagner said that Lubitz flew gliders over the same area "before he had problems at work”, suggesting that club colleagues were aware of the break of several months which Lufthansa said he took from pilot training with them five years ago. No one seemed aware of his recent illness, however.

Several flying club members confirmed that Lubitz brought a girlfriend to the annual barbecue last autumn and a second name on the doorbell of his Dusseldorf apartment showed the surname Goldbach, suggesting that she had moved in with him.

A source on the investigating team suggested that a breakup with his girlfriend was part of their inquiries, Bild newspaper reported.

The small village of Le Vernet, French Alps, near the site where an Airbus A320 crashed.

"He had a serious relationship crisis with his girlfriend before the disaster,” it quoted the source as saying.

Lubitz’s father Guenter, a successful banker, and his mother, a church organist, did not return to their large detached home in a quiet suburb of Montabaur yesterday.

Neighbours said that Lubitz was rarely seen with his younger brother, who shared the family home, but was often seen jogging around the area.

Besides flying, his other passion was running and he took part in several half-marathons.

"He definitely did not smoke. He really took care of himself. He always went jogging. I am not sure whether he did marathons, but he was very healthy,” said Johannes Rossmann, a neighbour living a few doors away from the parental home.

A glider of the LSC Westerwald airfield, where Andreas Lubitz first learned to fly.

Lubitz did not seem to have financial worries. It was reported by the German magazine Focus online yesterday that he ordered two new Audi cars from a dealership near Dusseldorf a few weeks ago. It suggested that one was for him and the other for his girlfriend but only one had so far been delivered.

Lufthansa announced that, as well as meeting this week’s new European guidelines that there should be two crew in the cockpit of a passenger aircraft at all times, a wholesale security review was under way. Captain Werner Maas, the new group safety officer, "will have overarching group-wide responsibility for examining and further refining all flight safety-relevant procedures” and report directly to Carsten Spohr, the chief executive.

A group of young people from Montabaur said prayers for the families of the crash dead last night at the church of St Peter in the heart of the old town.

Among roses, tulips and candles at the entrance to the church, a handwritten sign declared: "We are thinking of all the people who died in this tragedy. Our thoughts are with the families and the people who were lost.”

The Times

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