Andreas Lubitz takes part in a road race in Hamburg, Germany, in 2009.(Photo: Foto Team Mueller, AFP/Getty Images)
The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps a week ago told his flight school in 2009 that he had suffered a "serious episode of severe depression," airlines officials said Tuesday.
Lufthansa, the parent of Germanwings, says the Lubitz note was found in emails Andreas Lubitz sent to Lufthansa's flight school when he returned to training.
"Thereafter the co-pilot received the medical certificate confirming his fitness to fly," Lufthansa said in a statement.
"This is the single most outrageous situation I've encountered in 33 years as a law professor," says David Gregory, Dorothy Day Professor of Law & Executive Director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law at St. John's University. "There is every indication of criminal gross negligence, and some person or persons may be criminally prosecuted as a result of this admission, posing the possibility of damages in numbers that could threaten the very future of the airline.
"This was not an accident or a situation where a tire blew out. This was a deliberate decision to take the very last person qualified to fly this plane and allow him to be alone in the cockpit."
Lufthansa's statement said that "after further internal investigations" it submitted additional documents to the German prosecutors.
The documents include the email and other medical information Lubitz provided the Flight Training Pilot School in 2009 in connection with resuming his flight training, Lufthansa said.
The voice recorder from Flight 9525 indicates that Lubitz waited until he was alone in the cockpit, then locked the pilot out and began an unscheduled 10-minute descent. Ignorning the screams of the pilot -- and panic of passengers -- Lubitz allowed or directed the plane to slam into a steep ravine, killing himself and the other 149 people on the plane.
On Monday, prosecutors in Duesseldor revealed that Lubitz had been treated for suicidal tendencies years ago and more recently was deemed "unable to fly."
Christoph Kumpa, spokesman for Düesseldorf prosecutors, said Lubitz, 27, had received psychotherapy several years before obtaining his pilot's license. Officials for Germanwings and parent Lufthansa had not directly addressed the issue of whether they were aware of Lubitz's therapy, citing confidentiality of medical records.
Kumpa also said physicians had found Lubitz unfit to fly in recent months, though it was not clear why. He said Lubitz had displayed no suicidal tendencies nor aggressive behavior and had no apparent physical illness.
Contributing: Bart Jansen.
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