An ex-girlfriend of the co-pilot who deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane, killing all 150 on board, has told how he vowed to “do something” history would remember him by, according to reports.
Andreas Lubitz, 27, had hidden a sick note declaring him unfit to work on the day of the disaster before boarding the Dusseldorf-bound Airbus A320 and piloting it into a mountain in the southern French Alps.
According to German newspaper Bild, an ex-girlfriend of Lubitz, identified only as Mary W, said 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 added: “I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense.”
And the stewardess, 26, said the pilot, who took a break in his training due to reported “burnout-syndrome”, had suffered nightmares and his behaviour had scared her.
She told the paper: “At night, he woke up and screamed: ‘We’re going down!’, because he had nightmares. He knew how to hide from other people what was really going on inside.”
The comments came as some families of the 149 victims, including three Britons, gathered for a church service and as Germanwings parent company Lufthansa said it would offer immediate aid of up to 50,000 euros (£36,500) per passenger to relatives of those who died in the crash.
Family briefings are planned for later today at its family assistance centre in the French city of Marseille, the airline added.
The extent of Lubitz’s health problems became apparent after German prosecutors poring over his medical history found the torn-up sick note among items discovered when police searched his Dusseldorf apartment.
The prosecutors’ office said: “Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors.
“The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues.”
Germanwings confirmed the sick note was not submitted to the company.
The prosecutors also said the search found no suicide note or confession, “nor was there any evidence of a political or religious background to what happened”.