Latest update : 2015-06-06
The Germanwings co-pilot who deliberately crashed into the Alps tried to contact dozens of doctors ahead of the March 24 disaster, French prosecutors said Thursday. Investigators have said Andreas Lubitz was suffering from an undisclosed ailment.
Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin, who is leading the criminal investigation into the March 24 crash that killed all 150 people on board Germanwings Flight 9525, told The Associated Press late on Thursday that Lubitz had sought help from dozens of doctors in the period before the crash.
Lubitz, 27, had suffered from depression and suicidal tendencies in the past. The latest finding suggests that he was desperate to find an explanation for some undisclosed mental or physical ailment even as he researched ways of killing himself and all those aboard the doomed flight.
In the days following the crash, prosecutors in Lubitz's home town of Duesseldorf said they had seized medical documents from his home that indicated “an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment”.
Robin will discuss the progress of his investigation at a closed-door meeting at the French foreign ministry on June 11, his office said on Friday.
The prosecutor said he had received responses to formal requests for international cooperation with the probe, including from Germany, which was home to about half of the victims. Germanwings and its parent company Lufthansa had also responded, he said.
Investigators say Lubitz intentionally crashed the jet after locking the pilot out of the cockpit. German prosecutors have said that in the week before the crash, he spent time online researching suicide methods and cockpit door security -- evidence of a premeditated act.
Prosecutors found torn-up doctors' notes at Lubitz's home excusing him from work, including one covering the day of the crash.
German prosecutors initially said that he had hidden his illness from his employer and his colleagues. But Lufthansa later confirmed that it was informed that Lubitz suffered from depression six years ago.
Germanwings and Lufthansa have said that Lubitz had passed all the necessary medical tests and was deemed by doctors to be fit to fly.
Repatriation under way
The families of those killed in the crash will start receiving bodies next week, Robin said. He acknowledged delays in embalming the remains, which he noted must be performed according to the rules of each of the 19 countries of the victims.
Plans to repatriate the remains of the victims were put on hold earlier this week because of errors on death certificates. Elmar Giemulla, a lawyer representing several German families, said some of them were informed on Friday that repatriation will now go ahead as planned on June 10.
Lufthansa said Friday that an MD11 plane will transport the remains of 30 victims from Marseille to Duesseldorf on Tuesday, to be handed over to relatives on Wednesday.
Further remains will be transported to the victims' homelands over the coming weeks, it said.
Robin said that he will address the media next week, after reviewing the responses to his requests for cooperation and meeting with the families affected by the crash.
For now, "I have decided to prioritise the victims' families," he said.
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