Relatives of the people killed when the German pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed a passenger jet into a French mountainside say Lufthansa should have done more to stop him flying after he was diagnosed with mental health problems.

Victims’ families say the French accident report released on Sunday failed to answer why Lubitz, who had been referred to a psychiatric clinic two weeks before the tragedy last March, was able to hide his illness from his employers.

And they are angry that doctors, who confirmed Lubitz had “shown symptoms suggesting a psychotic depressive episode” just weeks before the crash, refused to speak to investigators, citing patient confidentiality.

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Lubitz locked the flight captain out of the cockpit and put the plane into a controlled descent over the French Alps, killing all 150 people onboard. Germanwings and Lufthansa strongly deny wrongdoing, saying Lubitz was certified to fly.

In its 87-page final report into the tragedy, the French crash investigation agency, the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA), found that they could have done nothing to stop Lubitz.

“No action could have been taken by the authorities and/or his employer to prevent him from flying that day, because they were informed by neither the co-pilot himself, nor by anyone else, such as a physician, a colleague or family member,” it said.

The BEA’s report revealed that a private doctor had recommended Lubitz be admitted to a psychiatric hospital a fortnight before the crash.

The 27-year-old had also been signed off work sick by two doctors and given anti-depressives. Neither medic informed Lufthansa that he was not fit to fly.

Lawyers for victims’ relatives said they were “really upset” and failed to understand how Lubitz had retained his pilot’s licence.

In a meeting with passengers’ families before the report’s release, BEA said investigators would have liked to talk to the doctors who treated Lubitz to understand why he acted as he did.

“They wanted to understand why a young pilot with a supposedly nice family would want to commit suicide,” said Robert Tansill Oliver, whose son Robert Oliver Calvo died in the crash, leaving a wife and two children.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robert Tansill Oliver (right) and Maribel Calvo, the parents of Robert Oliver Calvo, who was killed in the Germanwings crash. Photograph: Hernan Munoz/AP

“They wanted to find out why he did what he did, the root causes. Everyone in the auditorium was asking the same question: ‘Why did these German doctors refuse to talk to you?’”

Detailed medical records about Lubitz had suggested he had seen 41 doctors – many of them eye specialists – in five years, seven in the month before the crash. The doctors who treated him refused to speak to the inquiry team, as did members of Lubitz’s family.

“It is likely that breaching medical confidentiality was perceived by these doctors as presenting more risks, in particular for themselves, than not reporting the co-pilot to authorities,” the BEA stated.

Jürgen Fischenich, whose son Sven, 33, died in the crash, said he and other families were still waiting for an apology from Lufthansa for failing to keep a pilot with a history of mental health problems out of the cockpit. “When something happens in a company, the person at the top is responsible, even if he wasn’t directly involved himself,” Fischenich said. “They need to apologise at least,” he told the Associated Press.

He added: “Without the negligence on Lufthansa’s part, my son wouldn’t have died like this. It wasn’t just an accident. This was a crash where Lufthansa’s safety mechanisms failed.”

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The German lawyer Elmar Giemulla, who represents a number of victims’ families, agreed. He said: “They have to take care of their equipment and they have to ensure that their staff is able to fly an aircraft. And they didn’t meet that responsibility, it’s sad to say.”

In Bonn, Christof Wellens, a lawyer for some of the families, said the report did not answer relatives’ questions over “how it is possible that such an ill person gets a pilot’s licence”.

Lawyers say the compensation offered by Lufthansa – about €25,000 (£19,000) for each victim – is too low. Wellens said his clients were launching legal action against the flying school in Phoenix, Arizona, owned by Lufthansa, where Lubitz trained, in the hope of winning a bigger payout.

“It was here he first stopped his pilot training for a while because of psychological problems. He should never have been allowed to return to them,” Wellens said.

Investigators recommended more frequent medical evaluations for all pilots showing any kind of psychological or psychiatric problems, however minor. The BEA said the medical secrecy rules must protect the patient, but should also take into account public safety, and that there should be greater support for pilots who have depression.



Markus Wahl, spokesman for the Cockpit union representing German pilots, said the BEA’s safety recommendations were a balanced package of measures and should be implemented in full.

However, Johann Reuss, of Germany’s air accident investigation agency, said it would be difficult to change the law regarding medical confidentiality. German doctors can be punished with a fine or up to a year in prison for breaching patient confidentiality.

The report confirmed that Lubitz had deliberately set the Airbus A320’s autopilot to carry out a controlled descent over the French Alps where it ploughed into a mountain, after locking the flight captain out of the cockpit.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowers left in front of a monument to the victims of the Germanwings crash. Photograph: Alberto Estevez/EPA

Flight recorder data showed that Lubitz was left alone at the controls of the Barcelona to Düsseldorf flight at 9.30am – 30 minutes after it had taken off. Half a minute later, Lubitz changed the altitude from a cruising height of 38,000ft to just 100ft and set the automatic pilot to descend. In the following seconds Lubitz changed the plane’s speed 10 times, according to the report.

He failed to respond to repeated calls from both civilian and military air traffic controllers and the crew of another aircraft.

He also ignored increasingly frantic signals at the door and cabin calls, and requests by the flight captain Patrick Sondenheimer to open the door. The final moments of the flight recorder suggest someone tried to break down the cockpit door.

Flight data from the outbound flight to Barcelona earlier that morning suggested Lubitz had reduced the altitude from 35,000ft to 100ft for three seconds before returning it to the original setting.

“Actions on the autopilot system during the first flight of the day may be interpreted as a rehearsal for suicide,” reported investigators.

The BEA report stated that Lubitz’s professional level was judged to be “above standard” by his flight instructors and examiners.

“None of the pilots or instructors interviewed during the investigation, who flew with him in the months preceding the accident, indicated any concern about his attitude or behaviour during flights.”

Lubitz had been denied a medical certificate enabling him to fly in 2009 because of his depression and the medication he was taking to combat it. He was granted permission, with conditions, in July 2014, which was valid until August 2015.

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The investigation revealed that Lubitz had begun suffering a “severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms” in August 2008 and had made several “no suicide pacts” with his treating psychiatrist.

In February 2015, a private doctor diagnosed Lubitz with “psychosomatic and anxiety disorders” and referred him to a psychotherapist and psychiatrist.

On 9 March, another private doctor gave Lubitz a sick leave certificate. It was not forwarded to Germanwings. The following day, the first private doctor referred the pilot to a psychiatric hospital for treatment for a possible psychosis. The same doctor gave Lubitz a 19-day sick leave certificate on 12 March. It was not sent to Germanwings.

The BEA’s report said “the limited medical and personal data available to the safety investigation did not make it possible for an unambiguous psychiatric diagnosis to be made. In particular an interview with the co-pilot’s relatives and his private physicians was impossible, as they exercised their right to refuse to be interviewed.

“On the day of the accident, the pilot was still suffering from a psychiatric disorder, which was possibly a psychotic depressive episode and was taking psychotropic medication. This made him unfit to fly,” the BEA report states.

Rémi Jouty, BEA director, said the report’s recommendations addressed weaknesses in the existing security measures, but that it was impossible to make them “100% watertight”.

Asked about possible modifications to the cockpit door to avoid a flight commander or pilot being locked out, Jouty added: “The concept of the door [security] is to protect the cockpit against intrusion from the cabin. We consider with the still-present terrorist threat we should not change that idea.

“We cannot claim that all this will always stop a person wishing to commit suicide ... the history of air accidents has proven otherwise.”

The father of Paul Bramley, 28, one of three Britons to die in the crash, criticised Germanwings and its parent company Lufthansa for not keeping Lubitz out of the cockpit.

“He was seen 41 times by different doctors. If they had said something my son and everyone on that flight would still be alive,” Philip Bramley, 60, told the Sunday Mirror. “But it’s my view that the airline is at fault. They should be more diligent about who they employ and have more safeguards to stop people slipping through the net.”