Andreas Lubitz

German pilot

Andreas Günter Lubitz (18 December 1987[1] – 24 March 2015)[n 1] was a German pilot for the international airline Lufthansa. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, French and German authorities, as well as executives of Lufthansa, have issued statements that they believe that Lubitz intentionally crashed the Airbus A320 of Germanwings Flight 9525 (GWI18G & D-AIPX) into the French Alps, killing himself along with 149 others in a murder-suicide on 24 March 2015.[2][3][4][5][6]

Andreas Lubitz
Born
Andreas Günter Lubitz

(1987-12-18)18 December 1987
Died24 March 2015(2015-03-24) (aged 27)
Cause of deathSuicide by pilot
NationalityGerman
OccupationPilot (First officer)
Known forGermanwings Flight 9525 (IATA-Code: 4U9525)

Early life

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Lubitz grew up in Neuburg an der Donau until the age of six, where he lived with his parents at his maternal grandfather's house.[7] The family then moved to Montabaur,[8] where he attended the Mons-Tabor-Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 2007. At the age of 14, he became a member of the local gliding club LSC Westerwald e. V., where he obtained his gliding licence about two years later.[9] In 2008, Lubitz began his pilot training at the Lufthansa Commercial Flight School in Bremen, which he interrupted for several months in 2009. Before continuing his training as a commercial pilot, he was "in psychotherapeutic treatment for an extended period of time with noted suicidal tendencies."[10] From 2011 to 2013, he ran the Lufthansa Frankfurt Half Marathon.[11]

After completing his training, Lubitz worked as a flight attendant for eleven months, then as a first officer (co-pilot) for Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings from September 2013,[12] completing around 630 flight hours on the Airbus A320.[13]

  1. There is some disagreement in the sources as to the age of Lubitz. Some sources state that Lubitz was 28 years old, but the date of birth cited by The New York Times would indicate that he was 27 years old when he died.

References

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  1. Fatal Descent of Germanwings Plane Was ‘Deliberate,’ French Authorities Say The New York Times, Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  2. "Alps Crash Co-Pilot 'Wanted To Destroy Plane'". SKY News. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  3. Clark, Nicola; Bilefsky, Dan (26 March 2015). "Germanwings Co-Pilot Deliberately Crashed Airbus Jet, French Prosecutor Says". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  4. "Germanwings Plane Crash Investigation". The Guardian. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  5. "Germanwings Flight 4U9525: Co-pilot put plane into descent, prosecutor says". CBC News. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  6. Levs, Josh; Smith-Spark, Laura; Yan, Holly (26 March 2015). "Germanwings Flight 9525 co-pilot deliberately crashed plane, officials say". SFist. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  7. "Die Tagebuch-Aufzeichnungen von Andreas Lubitz". stern.de (in German). 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
  8. "Andreas Lubitz: first picture of Germanwings co-pilot's father emerges". The Telegraph. 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
  9. "(S+) Der Amokflug". Der Spiegel (in German). 2015-03-27. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
  10. Mediengruppe, FUNKE (2015-03-30). "Das Statement der Staatsanwaltschaft im Wortlaut". www.morgenpost.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-31.
  11. "Andreas Lubitz: Everything we know about Germanwings plane crash co-pilot". The Telegraph. 2015-05-05. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
  12. "Andreas L. wollte unbedingt Pilot werden".
  13. Biermann, Kai; Thurm, Frida (2015-03-26). "Andreas Lubitz: "Er war glücklich über den Job bei Germanwings"". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-01-31.