Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

World

Germanwings crash co-pilot hid ‘illness’ from airline

– Desperate captain used ‘axe’ –

Lubitz locked himself into the cockpit when the captain went out to use the toilet, then refused his colleague’s increasingly desperate attempts to get him to reopen the door, French prosecutor Brice Robin said.

According to Bild, the captain even tried using an axe to break through the armoured door as the plane was sent into its fatal descent by Lubitz.

This could not be immediately confirmed, but a spokesman for Germanwings told Bild that an axe was standard emergency equipment on board the aircraft.

The tragedy has already prompted a shake-up of safety rules, with several airlines, including German companies, announcing a new policy requiring there always be two people in the cockpit.

Meanwhile, the UN world aviation body stressed that all pilots must have regular mental and physical check-ups.

– ‘Unimaginable’ –

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the findings that Lubitz appeared intent on crashing the plane added an “absolutely unimaginable dimension” to the tragedy, in which most victims were German and Spanish nationals.

In the northwestern town of Haltern, which lost 16 students and two teachers who were returning from a school exchange, the revelations prompted shock and rage.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The principal of the stricken school, Ulrich Wessel, said “what makes all of us so angry (is) that a suicide can lead to the deaths of 149 other people.”

German President Joachim Gauck, a Protestant pastor, attended a memorial service in Haltern Friday and also extended special condolences to the families of the victims in Spain and other countries.

Meanwhile in Montabaur, Mayor Edmund Schaaf urged reporters encamped in the community to show restraint with Lubitz’s parents, a banker and a church organist, who live in a handsome home on a leafy, normally quiet street.

“Regardless of whether the accusations against the co-pilot are true, we sympathise with his family and ask the media to be considerate,” he said.

About The Author

Pages: 1 2 3

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News