Past encounters with flier in fatal crash recalled as prosecutors seek answers
A pilot who once flew with killer airman Andreas Lubitz yesterday spoke of how he flew the "route of death" between Barcelona and Dusseldorf just two days after the Alps tragedy.
Frank Woiton said he hugged each passenger as he boarded the plane and prepared to retrace the route taken by the ill-fated Germanwings jet. The father of two described a "crazy mood" among the crew and passengers, saying "you could read it in their faces".
Speaking to German newspaper Bild, the 48-year-old said he received huge applause after he delivered an emotional speech before take-off.
"Sure, I will take you from Dusseldorf to Barcelona. You can rely on the fact that I want to sit this evening with my family at the dinner table," he had told passengers over the intercom. "People should see that in the cockpit there is also another human being."
Woiton, who also volunteered to work the day after the crash when several Germanwings crew refused to fly, also described a flight he shared with Lubitz.
"When I flew with him he told me of his training and how happy he was. He said he wanted to fly long-haul routes and become a captain.
"He had mastered the plane very well. He had everything under control. That's why I left him alone in the cockpit, to go to the toilet."
A former girlfriend has told how Lubitz vowed to "do something" history would remember him by, German media report.
Lubitz, 27, had hidden a sick note declaring him unfit to work on the day of the disaster before boarding the Dusseldorf-bound Airbus A320 and piloting it into the southern French Alps.
According to Bild, stewardess Mary W said he told her last year: "One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then all will know my name and remember it."
"I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense." She said Lubitz, who took a break in his training due to reported "burnout syndrome", had suffered nightmares and his behaviour had scared her.
"At night, he woke up and screamed: 'We're going down!', because he had nightmares. He knew how to hide from other people what was really going on inside."
The comments came as families of the 149 victims gathered for a church service and as Lufthansa said it would offer immediate aid of up to 50,000 euros ($72,000) per passenger to relatives of those who died.
Flowers are laid in memory of the crash victims. Photo / AP
German prosecutors said they had found torn-up doctor's notes at Lubitz's home, including one covering the day of the tragedy.
Although prosecutors did not reveal whether Lubitz's illness was mental or physical, other German media reports suggest he had concealed severe attacks of depression from his employers.
They found no suicide note or confession during searches of his flat in Dusseldorf and his parents' home in Montabaur. "Nor was there any evidence of a political or religious background to what happened," they added.
Dusseldorf University Hospital said Lubitz had been a patient there during the past two months. The co-pilot had last gone to the hospital for "diagnostic evaluation" on March 10. It declined to provide details about his condition but denied German media reports that it had treated him for depression. It has given Lubitz's patient records to prosecutors.
A "black box" flight recorder found at the crash scene contained evidence suggesting Lubitz locked the more senior pilot out of the cockpit before guiding the aircraft into a dive.
French authorities said they had recovered 400 to 600 body parts from across the Alpine crash site. No bodies were found intact.
The tragedy forced an urgent review of cockpit defences imposed after the 9/11 hijackings in the US. Airlines around the world said they would impose the principle that no pilot should ever remain in the cockpit alone.
