How can these loved ones go from holding lively discussions, non-stop activity, and human interaction to corpse-ridden wreckage in an instant? The answer is their lives were stolen. But how can we make sense of such horror?
1. Rule Out External Variables
Experts ruled out weather, foreign terrorists, and engine failure. Then they began to peer into the life of the co-pilot who sat alone in the cockpit quietly waiting for the final spectacular crash.
Andreas Lubitz (27) took the trust 150 people bestowed upon him by flying Germanwings flight 4U 9525 and thrust it against the steep, rocky terrain of the French Alps. The flight was scheduled from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
2. Understand His Personal Relationships
The German Daily Bild (translation: The Picture), a major German newspaper, interviewed Lubitz’s former girlfriend. She goes by Maria W. in this article and shares shocking revelations about the mystery pilot,
?When I heard about the crash, I remembered a sentence, over and over again, that he said,? (she pauses, now feeling the weight of Lubitz’s words) ??One day I’ll do something that will change the system, and then everyone will know my name and remember it?.?
?I didn’t know what he meant by that at the time, but now it’s obvious.?
Maria W. (26), a flight attendant, flew with Lubitz for five months in 2014, but he acquired another girlfriend since then. She described him as “sweet” and gifting her with flowers.
But when it came to work, Lubitz would become agitated. He was upset about the low pay and job pressures.
She describe how in the middle of the night, the young pilot would awaken screaming,
“At night he woke up and screamed ‘We’re going down!’
Maria W. broke off their relationship, because his erratic behavior caused her to fear him.
??It became “increasingly clear that he had problems.”
She believes that if the facts support Lubitz intentionally crashing, 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.”
3. Search His Home For Medical Evidence
Investigators searched both the home where he lived with his parents and a separate flat he had taken. The search reveals a medical history that supports Maria W.’s perceptions.
They found two doctor’s notes stating he was not fit to fly that day. Lubitz had torn them in half.?Officials also found several filled prescriptions “of medicines for the treatment of psychological illnesses.” According to the weekly German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag (The World On Sunday),
?Quoting an unnamed high-ranking investigator as saying he’d been treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists.?
The Bild and the New York Times said that the pilot went to doctors for treatment with his eyesight problems.
The descent took eight long minutes, with the senior pilot frantically pounding on the cockpit door according to French officials.
Lubitz’s mental illness surfaced elsewhere. He took sabbatical in 2008 ?for a certain period? from pilot training, which Germanwings due to ?stress? and ?mental fatigue.? When he returned to training, he passed all qualifying, physical, and psychological tests.
Ever since he was a child, he wanted to become a pilot. And the job at Lufthansa was his dream. He especially wanted to fly long-hauls. But when he realized he would not be able to fulfill that dream, the pilot told his former girlfriend,
?Everyone will know my name.’
I suspect many will curse it.
T/H to Ben Grenaway
