MONTABAUR, GERMANY ¨C The German co-pilot who is believed to have deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps, killing 150 people, broke off his training six years ago due to depression and spent over a year in psychiatric treatment, a German newspaper reported on Friday.
The story in the German tabloid Bild came a day after French prosecutors said they believed Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old co-pilot at Lufthansa¡¯s budget airline Germanwings, had locked the captain out of the cockpit and steered the Airbus A320 airliner into its fatal descent.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr acknowledged at a news conference on Thursday that Lubitz had broken off his training in 2009 but did not explain why. He said there was nothing in the pilot¡¯s background to suggest he was a risk. ¡°After he was cleared again, he resumed training. He passed all the subsequent tests and checks with flying colors. His flying abilities were flawless,¡± Spohr said.
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