Relatives whose loved ones died in 2015 when a Germ-anwings pilot deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps filed a wrongful death suit on Wednesday ag-ainst the US flight sch-ool that trained h
Relatives whose loved ones died in 2015 when a Germ-anwings pilot deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps filed a wrongful death suit on Wednesday ag-ainst the US flight sch-ool that trained him.
“Andreas Lubitz, the suicidal pilot, should never have been allowed to enter” the training program at Airline Training Center Arizona, Inc., said Brian Alexander, an attorney who filed the suit in federal court in Phoenix, Arizona.
It was filed on behalf of 80 people whose relatives pe-rished in the Ma-rch 15, 2015 crash of a Germanwi-ngs’ Flight A320. The crash took 150 lives, including that of Lubitz, a troubled pilot who had struggled for years with mental health problems. The 28-year-old locked the pilot out of the cockpit and while alone at the controls, steered the jetliner into the side of a mountain, killing all 144 passengers and six crew. Lubitz had received pilot training at ATCA between November 2010 and March 2011. ATCA, like the budget air carrier Germanwings, is owned by the German airline Lufthansa.
A spokeswoman for Lufthansa said the suit had “no chance of success,” but declined further comment.
Mr Alexander said ATCA was “not just negligent, but also careless, and even reckless, in failing to apply its own well-advertised ‘stringent’ standards to discover the history of Lubitz’s severe mental illness that should have kept Lubitz from admission to ATCA’s flight school.”
Investigators determined after the crash that Lubitz, 27, had a history of depression and suicidal tendencies and the case has raised questions about medical checks faced by pilots as well as doctor-patient confidentiality.
Lubitz had filed false documentation with the US Federal Aviation Administration, deliberately concealing “his true medical history
But the plaintiffs’ lawyers said numerous red flags should have made it clear that Lubitz — with a history of serious mental illness that included suicidal tendencies — was unfit to be a pilot.
Meanwhile, Germany passed a package of measures to tighten up reporting of pilot medical assessments and requiring tougher alcohol and drugs checks on pilots.
Investigations showed Lubitz had a history of mental illn-ess and had concealed this from his employer in the months leading up to the crash. Lubitz was taking anti-depressants and sleeping medication at the time of the crash, investigators said.
Alongside random spot checks on pilots for drugs and alcohol, the new law will involve a medical database being set up to allow for easier reference for aeromedical specialists of pilot medical assessments.
