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Airlines should look after pilots properly

The father of one of the victims of the French Alps plane crash has called for airlines to take greater care over pilots’ welfare.

French prosecutors have said they believe German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately slammed the Germanwings flight into a mountain on Tuesday, killing all 150 people aboard.

Authorities have since said Lubitz hid evidence of an illness from his employers – including a sick note for the day of the crash.

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“I believe the airlines should be more transparent and our finest pilots looked after properly,” said Philip Bramley, from Hull in northern England.

“We put our lives and our children’s lives in their hands.”

His 28-year-old son, Paul Bramley, was killed in Tuesday’s disaster.

Speaking near the site of the crash, Philip Bramley said Lubitz’s motive was irrelevant.

“What is relevant, is that it should never happen again; my son and everyone on that plane should not be forgotten, ever,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lubitz worried “health problems” would dash his dreams and vowed one day to do something to “change the whole system”, an ex-girlfriend told a German newspaper.

The 26-year-old woman, identified only as Maria W, recalled in an interview with the mass-circulation Bild daily how Lubitz told her: “One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember.”

“I never knew what he meant by that but now it makes sense,” Bild quoted the “shocked” flight attendant as saying.

The black box voice recorder indicates that Lubitz, 27, locked the captain out of the cockpit of the Germanwings jet and deliberately flew Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside, killing all 150 aboard, as the more senior pilot tried desperately to reopen the door during its eight-minute descent, French officials said.

As investigators race to build up a picture of Lubitz and any possible motives, new media reports emerged saying he had suffered from vision problems, adding to earlier reports he was severely depressed.

German prosecutors believe he hid an illness from his airline but have not specified the ailment, and said he had apparently been written off sick on the day the Airbus crashed on its route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

Health problems made flying dream impossible: ex-girlfriend

Bild, which showed a photo of the ex-girlfriend from behind to conceal her face, said she had flown with Lubitz on European flights for five months last year and that he had had another girlfriend since her.

She said he could be “sweet” and would give her flowers but got agitated talking about work conditions, such as pay or the pressure of the job, and was plagued by nightmares.

“At night he woke up and screamed, ‘We’re going down’,” she said.

Germanwings Flight 4U9525 Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz

Andreas Lubitz gave a pre-warning of his intentions to his ex-girlfriend. Photo: AAP

If Lubitz did deliberately crash the plane, it was “because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa, of a job as captain and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible”, she told Bild.

She said she split up with him because it became “increasingly clear that he had problems”.

German police found a number of “medicines for the treatment of psychological illness” during a search at his Dusseldorf home, newspaper Welt am Sonntag weekly said, quoting an unnamed high-ranking investigator as saying he had been treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists.

Sunday’s Bild weekly and the New York Times, which cited two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz had sought treatment for problems with his sight.

No ‘particular element’ to explain alleged action

Germanwings pilot Frank Woiton was quoted in Saturday’s edition of Bild as saying he had flown with Lubitz, who had spoken about his ambitions to become a captain and fly long-distance routes.

He said he handled the plane well and “therefore I also left him alone in the cockpit to go to the toilet”, he told the newspaper.

French police investigator Jean-Pierre Michel, who was in Dusseldorf on Saturday, said Lubitz’s personality was a “serious lead” in the inquiry but not the only one.

The investigation has so far not turned up a “particular element” in the co-pilot’s life which could explain his alleged action in the ill-fated Airbus plane, he said.

German prosecutors revealed Friday that searches of Lubitz’s homes netted “medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment”, including “torn-up and current sick leave notes, among them one covering the day of the crash”.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr has said that Lubitz had suspended his pilot training, which began in 2008, “for a certain period”, before restarting and qualifying for the Airbus A320 in 2013.

Germany to hold national ceremony

germanwings plane crash

A vigil was erected at Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium secondary school in Germany to remember 16 teenagers and two teachers who were on the fatal plane crash. Photo: Getty

Germany will hold a national memorial ceremony and service on April 17 for the victims of Tuesday’s disaster, half of whom were German, with Spain accounting for at least 50 and the remainder composed of more than a dozen other nationalities, including two Australians.

It is due to be attended by German chancellor Angela Merkel and president Joachim Gauck, a spokeswoman for the regional North Rhine-Westphalia government said.

Around 500 people earlier Saturday attended a religious ceremony in the French town of Digne-les-Bains, about 40 kilometres south of the remote Alpine crash zone where searchers are recovering the victims’ remains and evidence.

Candles for each of the victims were placed in front of the cathedral’s altar.

The search of the crash site where teams are recovering bodies and looking for the plane’s second black box recorder was meanwhile called off as night fell, a spokesman for the local gendarmerie said.

Lufthansa and Germanwings – which has offered victims’ families up to 50,000 euros ($70,249) per passenger towards their immediate costs – placed a full-page condolence notice in several European newspapers Saturday.

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