Andreas Lubitz is accused of deliberately killing himself and 149 other people on the Airbus A320. Photo / Supplied
Andreas Lubitz is accused of deliberately killing himself and 149 other people on the Airbus A320. Photo / Supplied
Andreas Lubitz had a long-term relationship with teacher Kathrin Goldbach. They reportedly discovered she was pregnant two weeks before the Germanwings tragedy
The girlfriend of killer co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may be pregnant with his child.
Kathrin Goldbach, 26, whom he once planned to marry, discovered that she was expecting a baby as little as two weeks ago, German media reported.
The pair, who are said to have had a patchy relationship over the last seven years, were letting the pregnancy news sink in when Lubitz crashed a Germanwings flight into the French Alps, according to German newspaper Bild.
The news comes as it was suggested that Miss Goldbach broke off her relationship with Lubitz because his erratic personality left her fearing for her safety, the newspaper reported.
One friend said: "He tried to order her what to wear, what men she could speak to, even the length of her skirts. He was a control freak of the highest order."
Another friend added: "She said he was very kind and attentive, but that he had problems with mood swings. And I think we sensed that she became more fearful over time."
It claimed that Miss Goldbach lost patience with Lubitz's increasingly unpredictable and controlling behaviour just weeks before he downed the Germanwings Flight 4U9525.
Miss Goldbach still lived with Lubitz, 27, at the time of his death, but it is understood she was looking for another place to live.
German media also reported that Lubitz was having a five-month fling with a Germanwings stewardess named as Maria.
"He was always seeking assurances about the way he looked and the way he was viewed by others," Maria said.
She painted a portrait of a "tormented and erratic" man who would wake up from nightmares screaming: "We're going down, we're going down!"
She added: "He once told me he would do something to change the whole system, that the world would know his name and remember him."
The claims surrounding Lubitz's complicated personal life came as recordings from the flight's black box revealed the captain's desperate attempts to break into the cockpit to regain control of the plane.
Lubitz can be heard on the voice recorder urging the captain to go to the toilet. Photo / Supplied
According to transcripts published today, captain Patrick Sondheimer screamed "open the goddamn door!" as his co-pilot deliberately flew the aircraft into an Alpine ravine.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Lubitz was living "on the edge" because he feared that his deteriorating blurred vision would cost him his pilot's licence.
Lubitz masked his true condition - described by police as "severe burnout syndrome" - from his employers and was aided by German confidentiality laws which forbade his doctors from revealing just how mentally ill he really was.
But police still don't know whether his vision problems, which are understood to have begun several years ago, were caused by his psychological condition or whether, as one officer said, he was in fact "slowly going blind".
In the weeks before his death, Lubitz splashed out thousands of pounds buying two Audi cars. He took delivery of one vehicle just five days before Tuesday's horror.
Lubitz's obsessive need to be in charge extended even to fast food. Habib Hassani, who runs a pizza restaurant near Lubitz's Dusseldorf home, said: "He was extremely particular about pizza toppings."
"He wasn't interested in what was on the menu. It was often paprika, ham, onion and broccoli. He had to have it his way. He was compulsive about it."
Yesterday, it was revealed by police that Lubitz suffered from a "severe psychosomatic sickness" that required the care of several neurologists and psychologists.
Police said they took away a plethora of medicines from his apartment in Dusseldorf and from his parental home in the small Rhineland town of Montabaur.
Police have moved to seize the confidential medical records of the mass killer hitherto protected by labyrinthine privacy laws in Germany.
They particularly want to know if his eye problems contributed towards the catastrophic psychological collapse which led him to pilot his A320 Airbus into a French mountainside, killing himself and 149 innocent passengers and crew.
On Friday, it was revealed that his illness was so chronic that he had multiple sick notes from doctors, including one issued to him for the day of the disaster, discarded and ripped up in his home.
The disintegration of his eyesight, according to investigators, may have fuelled his chronic anxiety that his flying career - the career he lived for since he was a teenager - was coming to an end.
'Open the damn door' Desperate last words of captain locked out of cockpit
Dramatic recordings from the Germanwings flight's black box have revealed the captain's desperate attempts to break into the cockpit to regain control of the plane.
According to transcripts published in today's edition of the German newspaper Bild, captain Patrick Sondheimer screamed 'Open the goddamn door!' as his co-pilot deliberately flew the aircraft into an Alpine ravine.
The recording starts with captain Sondheimer apologising to passengers for a 26-minute delay in Barcelona, and promising to make up the time on the flight to Dusseldorf.
In the next 20 minutes, Sondheimer converses with co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who tells him he can go to the toilet at any time and he will take over the controls, noting that the pilot didn't go to the lavatory in Barcelona. At 10.27am, the airliner reaches its cruising altitude of 38,000ft. The pilot prompts his first officer to prepare for the landing in Dusseldorf.
Rescue helicopters continued to search the French Alps today for further signs of wreckage. Photo / AFP / Getty Images
The French prosecutors described Lubitz's replies as "laconic", and he is heard using words such as "hopefully" and "we'll see".
After the checks for landing, Lubitz says to Sondheimer again: "You can go now."
The pilot lets another two minutes elapse, then he says to Lubitz: "You can take over."
There is the sound of a seat being pushed back and the snap of a door.
At 10.29am the flight radar monitors the plane descending.
At 10.30am it is down by 316ft, and just a minute later, it is down 1,800ft. At 10.32am air traffic controllers try to contact the aircraft, but get no response.
In the plane, the automatic alarm signal 'Sink Rate' sounds almost at the same time, according to the voice recorder.
Shortly afterwards there is a loud bang, which sounds like someone trying to enter the cockpit. Sondheimer yells: "For God's sake, open the door!"
In the background, passengers can be heard screaming.
At 10.35am "loud, metallic banging against the cockpit door" is heard again, according to the French authorities. The jet is still 7,000ft above the ground.
About 90 seconds later there is a new warning message - "Ground! Pull up! Pull up!"
The pilot is heard shouting: "Open the goddamn door!"
At 10.38am, with its engines racing, the aircraft is on a north-east course over the French Alps. The breathing of Lubitz can be heard in the cockpit but he says nothing.
At 10.40am the aircraft hits the mountainside with its right wing. The last sounds are more screams from passengers.
