Andreas Lubitz was an unknown co-pilot for European airline Germanwings prior to the crash of flight 9525. Analysis of the flight data recorder from the plane reveals evidence strongly suggesting Lubitz purposely set the controls so that the aircraft would crash into a mountain in the Alps.
The 27-year-old aviator had trained with Lufthansa, which included psychological testing. Now, new details about the co-pilot are emerging, revealing previously-unknown information about the man who may be responsible for the deaths of 150 passengers and crew.
These are some of the details known so far about the sole occupant of the cockpit aboard the doomed craft at the time it went down.
1) Just one year before being accepted into the pilot training program at Lufthansa, Lubitz was working as a cook at a Burger King located behind a car wash. As he prepared fast food orders for customers, he would tell his co-workers of his dream to one day become a commercial pilot. He began training in 2008, but left the program within a year, due to stress.
"He had come back because he said the pressure was too great," Detlef Adolf, former Burger King mamanger and Lubitz's one-time boss, said.
2) Vision problems may have affected the ability of Lubitz to easily control the aircraft, but he hid his disorder for fear his flight certification would be revoked.
3) Lubitz was a psychiatric patient, being treated by several psychiatrists and neurologists. A wide range of prescription drugs were found in his apartment following the crash.
4) On the day of the incident, Lubitz was provided with a note from his doctors to stay away from work, but never turned in the form to his employer. Medical privacy laws prohibit physicians from sharing such information with the public.
5) A year before the crash, he told his girlfriend that he would, one day, carry out an act that would make people remember his name.
"When I heard about the crash, I remembered a sentence... he said: 'One day I'll do something that will change the system, and then everyone will know my name and remember it,'" the former lover, a flight attendeant who would only identify herself as Maria W., said.
6) Lubitz frequently woke up from violent nightmares, according to Maria W., who was in a relationship with the aviator in 2014. During some of these incidents, he would bolt up in bed, screaming "We're going down!"
7) Lubitz passed psychological tests involving role-playing in cockpit conditions with "flying colors" before being allowed to fly.
Only one of the two flight data recorders, or black boxes, have been found so far. Investigators hope the recovery of the second device will reveal more information about the tragedy.
