Germanwings pilot sought treatment for vision problems before crash, authorities say
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY – Andreas Lubitz, who was flying the Germanwings jetliner that slammed into a mountain in the French Alps on Tuesday, sought treatment for vision problems that may have jeopardized his ability to continue working as a pilot, two officials with knowledge of the investigation said Saturday.
The revelation of the possible trouble with his eyes added a new element to the emerging portrait of the 27-year-old German pilot, who the authorities say was also being treated for psychological issues and had hidden aspects of his medical condition from his employer.
It is not clear how severe his eye problems were or how they might have been related to his psychological condition. One person with knowledge of the investigation said the authorities had not ruled out the possibility that the vision problem could have been psychosomatic.
Lubitz, the co-pilot, was alone in the cockpit of the Airbus A320 jetliner on the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, ignoring demands from the captain to be let back in, when the plane crashed. The French prosecutor in the case, drawing from cockpit voice recordings and other data about the flight, has said Lubitz deliberately guided the plane, with another 149 people on board, into the mountains.
Since then investigators in Germany and France, airline regulators, political leaders and the families of the victims have sought answers about what might have led Lubitz to do what he did.
Friends and acquaintances have repeatedly said how important flying was to Lubitz, who began piloting gliders at a flying club near his hometown at the age of 14.
Police searching Lubitz’s apartment here in Düsseldorf on Thursday found doctors’ notes that said he was too ill to work, including on the day of the crash. One had been torn up and thrown in the wastebasket, supporting investigators’ suspicion that he was hiding his medical problems from the airline.
It appears that, as was the case with his psychiatric problems, Lubitz did not tell the airline about his vision concerns.
The Düsseldorf University Hospital said in a statement on Friday Lubitz had been evaluated at its clinic in February and as recently as March 10. Reached by phone on Saturday, a spokeswoman would not comment on whether he had sought treatment for vision problems, citing patient privacy laws. The hospital has an eye clinic. On Friday the hospital denied speculation that Lubitz had sought treatment for depression there.
Although he was flying for a commercial airline, Lubitz was a co-pilot and not working the kind of long-haul routes he aspired to.
When Klaus Radke, president of the club where Lubitz learned to fly gliders, the Luftsportclub Westerwald, first met Andreas Lubitz, he was a typical 14-year-old in the throes of puberty who was unusual only in his wide-eyed fascination with flying, Radke said. Last fall, when Lubitz came back to the club to put in some flight hours he needed to keep his glider’s license current, Radke was impressed at the fit, by all appearances self-assured and professional pilot that Lubitz had become.
“When I saw him as an adult compared to a youth, I thought, ‘He really amounted to something,’” Radke said Saturday under a sunny sky as wind swept the grassy landing strip used by the glider club. “He was confident, helpful. I thought, ‘Man, he’s someone who made it.’ ”
Radke, who said the club had received emailed death threats for helping Lubitz begin his flying career, picked up no sign last year that anything with Lubitz was amiss.
“I’m not a doctor,” Radke said. “For me he was normal.”
