The Germanwings co-pilot who crashed his Airbus in the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, told his ex-girlfriend that “one day everyone will know my name”, according to a media report. In an interview, a 26-year-old flight attendant known as Maria W told German newspaper Bild that when she heard about the crash she recalled Andreas lubitz telling her last year: “One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember.”
The black box voice recorder indicates that lubitz (27), locked his captain out of the cockpit on Tuesday and deliberately flew Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside, French officials say, in what appears to have been a case of suicide and mass killing. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that all the signs were “pointing towards an act that we can’t describe: criminal, crazy, suicidal”.
German prosecutors revealed that searches of lubitz’s homes netted “medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment”, including “torn-up and current sick leave notes, among them one covering the day of the crash”.
They did not specify the illness. According to Bild, the young woman, who was “very shocked”, flew with lubitz on European flights for five months last year, during which time they are believed to have been romantically involved.