2nd LD Writethru: Hospital confirms to have Germanwings co-pilot as patient
Xinhua, March 28, 2015 Adjust font size:
A hospital in Duesseldorf said on Friday that the co-pilot believed to have deliberately crashed Germanwings A320 flight on Tuesday had been a patient there in the last two months.
The University Hospital of Duesseldorf said in a statement that Andreas Lubitz, who was identified by French prosecutor as the co-pilot in the crashed Germanwings 4U9525 flight, visited the hospital as a patient in February 2015 and his last visit was on March 10, 2015.
The hospital said Lubitz was receiving a diagnosis evaluation, but refused to disclose more details.
It also denied previous media reports that the co-pilot was suffering from depression.
"Reports that Andreas L. was treated in our hospital for depression are incorrect," the statement read.
The hospital said it had handed over the medical records to the Duesseldorf prosecutor who announced earlier on Friday that a torn-up sick leave note was found in the co-pilot's residence in the western German city.
"We will support the investigation by the prosecutor strongly and unreservedly," said Klaus Hoeffken, hospital's chief executive said.
According to the Duesseldorf prosecutor, the sick leave note was valid for the day the crash happened. Documents containing medical information that "indicates an existing disease and appropriate medical treatment" were also among the findings in the co-pilot's home.
The prosecutor made the assumption that the co-pilot "concealed his illness towards his employer and his occupational environment."
Germanwings declared on Friday afternoon that a sick note for the tragic day, when the co-pilot appeared to have deliberately crashed the plane in the southern French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, had not been submitted to the company.
On Thursday, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told reporters that the co-pilot had passed all the company's medical tests and was "100 percent fit to fly with no restriction." However, he admitted that there was no regular psychological checks for Lufthansa and Germanwings' pilots.
A spokesman for the German Aviation Association (BDL) told Xinhua that there was currently no concrete plans to introduce separate psychological tests for German pilots in addition to routine checks, but he did not rule out the possibility of holding discussions in the future over whether it was necessary to adopt new rules on the topic. Endit