By David Williams and Sam Marsden and Tom Kelly In Dusseldorf For The Daily Mail
Published: 19:28 EST, 27 March 2015 | Updated: 21:07 EST, 27 March 2015
114shares
264
Viewcomments
Killer pilot Andreas Lubitz told his ex-girlfriend he was planning an act so heinous his name would be remembered for ever, it was sensationally claimed last night.
Lubitz was a tormented, erratic man who was a master of hiding his darkest thoughts and would wake up from nightmares screaming ‘we’re going down’, his former partner said.
She revealed to a German newspaper how Lubitz ominously 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.’
When she heard about the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U9525 on Tuesday, she remembered Lubitz’s menacing prophecy. ‘I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense,’ she told Bild.
Scroll down for video
Menacing prophecy: Andreas Lubitz - pictured competing in a half-marathon in 2013 - told his ex-girlfriend he was planning a heinous act a year before he deliberately condemned his 149 passengers and crewmates to their deaths when he crashed in the French Alps
Erratic: Lubitz (pictured) was a master of hiding his darkest thoughts and would wake up from nightmares screaming ‘we’re going down’
Relationship: Lubitz and his ex-girlfriend lived in a smart flat on the outskirts of Dusseldorf, understood to be in the block pictured above
Investigators suspect Germanwings crash was intentional
His personal problems and erratic behaviour was so severe that she was frightened and decided to leave him.
She added: ‘When I heard about the crash, there was just a tape playing in my head of what he said, “One day I will do something that will change the system and everyone will then know my name and remember me”.
‘I did not know what he meant by that at the time, but now it’s clear.’
Police will want to interview the unnamed former girlfriend in detail about the pilot’s state of mind. The couple had been together for seven years and lived in a smart flat on the outskirts of Dusseldorf. One report claimed they were engaged and planned to marry next year.
Lubitz had reportedly ordered two new Audis for them just before the tragedy in an apparent desperate last attempt to win her back. But she appeared to have rejected his offer, as only one car was ever delivered.
The startling revelations that Lubitz had long-plotted a spectacular act adds weight to claims the pilot concealed a medical condition that should have stopped him flying.
It comes after German investigators yesterday revealed the 27-year-old should have been off sick on the day he deliberately condemned his 149 passengers and crewmates to their deaths in the Alps.
Investigators revealed today that medical sign-off notes were found at Lubitz's home - including at least one that covered the day of the crash - and Dusseldorf University Hospital confirmed he had been a patient there over the past two months, although it would not disclose his condition.
Analysis: Police officers carry DNA samples of victims of the disaster to be tested at a mobile laboratory set up near the crash site
Samples: Investigators at the Germanwings crash site revealed they have retrieved more than 400 body parts belonging to the disaster's 150 victims - but have not found an intact body. Above, DNA testing is carried out in the makeshift forensics laboratory near the crash site
It also emerged that Lubitz was familiar with the area of the French Alps where he brought down the Airbus A320, having previously completed a gliding course there.
Unusually, he had worked as a flight attendant for nearly a year before becoming a pilot, which led to teasing from his colleagues. Some airline crew even nicknamed him ‘Tomato Andi’ – apparently a reference to the juice popular with passengers.
As investigators continue to scour his complicated background, it also emerged that the fitness fanatic was receiving treatment for his mental health issues and apparently feared his flying licence would be taken away if his airline learned the extent of his psychological breakdown.
At least one of the medical certificates found by investigators covered Tuesday, the day Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit and calmly crashed the aircraft. Reports in Germany last night claimed that two doctors had signed him off sick on the day of the disaster.
More sick notes are said to have covered other days when he flew despite being told not to. But police said they found no suicide note in a five-hour search.
Speaking to MailOnline tonight, a Germanwings spokesman stressed the company was unaware of any medical notes and said it had been Lubitz's responsibility to tell his employers he was unfit to fly.
Described as a man whose life-long obsession had been to become a pilot, it has been suggested he may have feared his flying licence might not be renewed on medical grounds. One friend said he 'would have died' if he had not passed his flying exams.
Search teams continue to scour the crash site, in which debris and human remains were scattered over an area of two square miles
Rescuers workers earlier today said they have recovered the bodies of 14 of the 150 victims and returned them to the base of the mountain
Crash site: Recovery workers are still scouring the area where the plane crashed down and have recovered the bodies of some of those killed
The captain of the Germanwings plane desperately tried to break down the cockpit door with a crowbar after Andreas Lubitz locked him out, it emerged yesterday.
The flight recorder showed that Patrick Sonderheimer repeatedly knocked on the door of the cockpit as the plane began to descend.
But he resorted to using a crowbar to try and get through the armoured panel as the plane plunged fatally towards the Alps.
German newspaper Bild yesterday reported that he had attempted to use an axe, and a Germanwings spokesman confirmed that such a tool was on board the aircraft.
But it emerged last night that the only axe on the plane would have been in the cockpit, meaning it was out of reach of the captain.
The disclosures will raise more questions for Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, as to how he was allowed to fly a passenger jet when he was known to suffer from depression – and to have suffered burnout and mental illness.
Unusually, Lubitz’s file with the German Civil Aviation Authority had been ‘flagged’ with the warning that he needed regular psychological assessment before being allowed to continue to fly.
Lawyers believe the families of victims could win up to £100million in a joint action against Lufthansa and Germanwings, which had claimed Lubitz was ‘100 per cent fit to fly’ but then admitted he slipped through their safety net.
Belgian Christian Driessens, whose brother Claude died in the crash, said: ‘I don’t understand how a serious company can let a depressed man pilot a plane.’ Police have ruled out any religious or political motive for the crash.
Ralf Herrenbrueck, of the German prosecutors office, said yesterday that torn-up sick notes ‘support the current preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues’.
He said seized documents indicated ‘an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment’.
Police are investigating whether Lubitz had stopped taking any medication he was on. As well as having been signed off from training with depression in 2008 and suffering a ‘depressive episode’ in 2009, it was reported that Lubitz had continued to receive mental health support right up until this week’s crash.
He had been described as ‘unflyable’ while at flying school and had been downgraded on several occasions due to depression. He had received psychiatric treatment for an 18-month period, according to reports.
Residents join airline staff in a memorial service for the victims of the Germanwings crash at St-Lambertus-Kirche in Dusseldorf, Germany
Mourners comfort each other after a service in Haltern am See, home to the 16 schoolchildren and two teachers who died in the crash
Lubitz seemed overwhelmed by stress after he started his pilot training course with Lufthansa, said the boss of fast food restaurant where he had previously worked.
Airline bosses stressed last night that Lubitz had not presented the company with a sick note for last Tuesday – and it had not known he had been signed off.
The flyer, a keen half-marathon runner, grew up in the small town of Montabaur where his businessman father and piano teacher mother owned an imposing detached property, worth some £330,000.
A friend said: ‘For him there was ever only one goal – to fly. It was a dream he had had since primary school. His room was plastered with pictures of planes and the Lufthansa logo could be seen everywhere. Pictures of old planes, new planes, of the largest planes – everywhere you could see aviation stuff.’
The airline that allowed Andreas Lubitz to fly could face compensation claims of tens of millions of pounds, it emerged last night.
Lufthansa – which owns the budget carrier Germanwings – is offering immediate aid of up to 50,000 euros (£36,500) per passenger to relatives, it was revealed yesterday.
But families of the 149 victims may launch a ‘class action’ for compensation which could see the airline involved in lawsuits for years.
Airlines are automatically liable to pay up to £105,000 for each death under the 1999 Montreal Convention – an international agreement on compensation for aviation disasters. But victims’ relatives can make much bigger claims if they can prove they have suffered losses as a result of the crash. In order to reject the demands, the airline must prove that it was not negligent or a third party was responsible – which could be difficult for Germanwings as there is evidence that Lubitz crashed on purpose.
Airline spokesman Thomas Jachnow confirmed a report on Lufthansa’s offer by German daily Tagesspiegel. The airline had not previously detailed the level of the payments to relatives, which are separate from eventual compensation claims.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr had said earlier that the airline would ‘honour international arrangements regulating liability’, and noted that the company already has offered immediate financial aid to anyone requiring help.
Touching: Photographs and handwritten notes were left in tribute by friends and family who visited the memorial near the crash site
Grief: Relatives of the victims overcome with emotion after attending a tribute in honour of their loved ones in Le Vernet, France on Thursday
In memory: French authorities installed an engraved stone tribute to the victims, where mourners gathered to lay flowers and candles
BA made to follow its rivals and ban lone pilots in the cockpit
British Airways is being forced to follow the lead of other UK airlines and ban pilots sitting alone in their cockpits.
It had resisted calls by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority for it to fall into line with other British airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and Monarch in enforcing the policy to stop a repeat of Tuesday’s Alps plane tragedy.
A pilot who once flew with Lubitz last night told how he left him alone in a cockpit to use the toilet.
‘I remember him well,’ said Frank Woiton, 48, ‘and I left my seat from time to time in the air to use the toilet.
‘When I flew with him he told me of his training and how happy he was.
‘He said that 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.’
He also told how he volunteered to fly the day after the crash after several Germanwings crews refused to board their aircraft.
The father-of-two added: ‘I am proud to be a pilot. Right now. The passengers and the crew trust me with their lives. By the unfathomable act of this man endless confidence is destroyed that now must be laboriously rebuilt.’
But European safety regulators last night issued a ‘temporary recommendation’ for airlines ‘to ensure that at least two crew, including at least one qualified pilot, are in the flight crew compartment at all times of the flight’. Such recommendations are effectively mandatory.
Last night the CAA issued an official statement saying: ‘The CAA has been closely co-ordinating with colleagues at the European Aviation Safety Agency since the Germanwings incident and we believe this recommendation is a proportionate step to enhance aviation safety for the travelling public.
We remain in close contact with all UK airlines, and it is the individual airline’s responsibility to determine how to comply with this recommendation, following a review of their cockpit security procedures.’
BA has declined to explain its reasoning insisting: ‘We don’t discuss security issues.’ It repeated that line again last night.
However the CAA said cockpit rules were an ‘operational issue’ and not a security issue.
The details were published in a major new aviation safety information bulletin issued last night and relating to ‘authorised persons in the flight crew compartment.’
But fears have been expressed by some that ‘knee-jerk’ reactions could perversely leave planes more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
The aim of the new rule is to help prevent a repeat of Tuesday’s tragedy when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 28, locked his captain out of the cockpit of the Germanwings Airbus and flew the packed plane into a mountainside.
British Airways carries 40million passengers a year to 175 destinations in 79 countries, at the rate of around 750 to 800 flights a day, including 43 to the USA. It has 281 aircraft of which 134 are long-haul and 147 short-haul. It employs 3,600 pilots and 15,600 cabin crew.
BA was the only one of the eight major UK airlines to refuse to implement new cockpit rules when they were first announced on Thursday.
Disaster prevention: easyJet will introduce new rules to ensure two crew members are in the cockpit at all times in the wake of the disaster