Chilling pledge of flight's co-pilot

THE CO-PILOT of the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed into France’s southern Alps near Seyne-les-Alpes killing all 150 people on board told his ex-girlfriend that he wanted to “do something to be remembered by” and that the world “would know his name”, according to reports.

According to the German newspaper Bild, a former girlfriend of Andreas Lubitz said that he had told her last year: “One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then all will know my name and remember it.”

She told the paper that he would scream “We going down!” as he awoke from nightmares about plane crashes. She added that he knew how to “hide from other people what was really going on inside”.

She added that he was prone to angry and violent outbursts.

The 27-year-old co-pilot had torn up a sick note that declared him unfit to work on the day of the disaster, German prosecutors said. He then boarded the Barcelona to Dusseldorf flight, locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately flew the Airbus A320 into the ground.

[Vidéo] #Germanwings : survol de la zone du #crashA320 #4U9525 http://t.co/80tCk7CMXF pic.twitter.com/rZkl1mzIRb— Ministère Intérieur (@Place_Beauvau) March 25, 2015

As the harrowing search at the crash site continues, the focus of the investigation into the cause of the crash quickly shifted to the plane’s co-pilot Lubitz after the cockpit voice recorder was recovered.

#Germanwings Analyses et identifications se poursuivent sur la zone. Nos dernières images : https://t.co/9a9Zy1bFvG pic.twitter.com/D2ZhiOwgUo— Ministère Intérieur (@Place_Beauvau) March 26, 2015

Detectives searching his home in Germany found medical documents “that indicate an ongoing illness and appropriate medical treatment,” according to a statement from German prosecutors.

The statement added: “The circumstance that torn-up current medical certificates – also pertaining to the day of the act – were found, supports, after preliminary examination, the assumption that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional circles.”

Germanwings later issued a statement saying that it had not been aware of the sicknote. “Germanwings would like to clarify that no medical note was presented to the firm for this day.”

Germany’s federal aviation office has reportedly asked Germanwings’ parent company Lufthansa for Lubitz’s files, and said it would pass them to French investigators.

Also read: New ‘rule of two’ in jet cockpits

Image: Ministère Intérieur / Twitter