The Germanwings co-pilot who crashed his plane into a mountain killing himself and 149 people on board was receiving psychiatric counselling right up until the crash, it emerged today.
Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out the of the Airbus A320's cockpit before setting the plane's controls to descend into a rocky valley, it emerged yesterday.
As well as having been signed off from training with depression in 2008, it was reported this morning that Lubitz had continued to receive mental health support up until this week's crash.
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| Picture of Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz jogging |
German newspaper Bild also reported that he was in the middle of the 'relationship crisis' with his girlfriend in the weeks before the crash and may have been struggling to cope with a break-up.
The new information emerged just hours after police investigating the disaster began a four-hour search of Lubitz's flat, which he is said to have shared with a girlfriend.
Last night police raided Lubitz’s family home in a small town north of Frankfurt and an apartment in Dusseldorf, taking away a computer, laptop and other files. Lubitz is understood to have split his time between the two addresses.
A friend said: 'His nickname was "Tomato Andi" - a reference to his past employment as a flight steward.'
Lubitz worked for nearly a year for Lufthansa as a cabin attendant before being accepted for flight training.
Following last night's search of his flat, a police spokesman said: ‘We have discovered a number of things at his apartment which we will now examine and carry tests on to see if they are significant. We do not yet know what significance they are.’
Airline chiefs confirmed Lubitz, who won an award for ‘outstanding’ aviation skills and dubbed himself ‘Flying Andy’, took several months off work in 2008 and had to retrain to join Germanwings.
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