Tid bits:
family escorts
A neighbour of Lubitz told Germany’s daily newspaper Bild that he hadn’t known the co-pilot, but had seen him when he was out jogging.
“He always seemed very polite and always said hello and I said hello back, but we never got into a conversation,” he said.
Asked about Lubitz’s family, the neighbor said there wasn’t a strong sense of neighbourliness in the area. However, he added that he refused to believe the news before it was proven 100 percent. “I can’t believe that anyone would have the heart to commit such a selfish act.”
Lubitz’s now-deleted Facebook suggests that he was an average enough young man – interested in flying and gadgets, as befits a pilot, as well as electronic music, discos and ten-pin bowling.
He liked include Lufthansa and LFT Bremen, one of five Lufthansa facilities around the world offering pilot training, and linked to the airbus A320 technical site and to Beechcraft Bonanza, a page dedicated to an American six-seater light aircraft. There is a mention of Alexander Gerst, the German astronaut who last year blasted off to the international space station.
Much of Lubitz’s social life appears to have taken place in the nearby city of Koblenz. There are links to a climbing wall located in a forest, a Burger King branch, a local bowling alley, Pinup, and one of Koblenz’s nightclub’s, the Agostea Nachtarena. Lubitz hints that his favourite music acts is Paul Kalkbrenner, a German electronic producer, and David Guetta, a French DJ turned record producer.
The pilot also appears to have had a sense of humour. One website on Lubitz’s Facebook profile is “Wenn Männer Allein Sind” or “When Men are Alone” – not a place for lonely singles but a humorous website which includes videos of men fooling about with chainsaws on frozen lakes, or haplessly looking after babies.
This sounds like confidentiality stuff:
Lufthansa revealed that Lubitz’s training in 2009 had been briefly interrupted, but was resumed after “his suitability as a candidate was re-established”. Asked about the reason for the interruption, the CEO, Carsten Spohr, said he was not allowed to say.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/li...tigation-press-conference-live-updates-4u9525
flying for Germanwings since September 2013 after being trained with the airline’s parent company, Lufthansa, in Bremen.
Lubitz had started training in 2008 – first working as a flight attendant – and there was nothing unusual in the results of his training, but acknowledged there had been a gap without saying what had caused it.
He began in the gliding school and made it to become a pilot,”
Neighbours described Lubitz as a friendly man pursuing his dreams “with vigour”. One told the local newspaper, the Rhein-Zeitung, that Lubitz had kept fit through running: “How often we saw him jogging past our house.”
They will also be interviewing pilots he has flown with over the last few weeks to see if there is anything about his behaviour, attitude or professional conduct that could be potentially relevant here,” Bor said.
“During the first 20 minutes, the pilots talk normally,” Mr. Robin said, saying they spoke in a “cheerful” and “courteous” way. “There is nothing abnormal happening,” he said.
The prosecutor said the transcript showed that the captain was preparing a briefing for landing in Düsseldorf. The co-pilot’s answer, the prosecutor said, was “laconic.”
Mr. Spohr said there was an interruption in Mr. Lubitz’s training that lasted “a few months,” but that he did not know why or whether it was related to a medical issue.
The company was unaware of the reasons for the interruption. If there were a medical explanation for it, Mr. Spohr said, Lufthansa as his employer would not be entitled to that information because of medical secrecy rules in Germany.
Mr. Lubitz was registered as living with his parents in the Montabaur region, but he also had a home in Düsseldorf, the German TV station N24 reported.
The code activates a loud buzzer and flashing light on the cockpit control panel, and it sets off a timer that unlocks the door 30 seconds later. The person outside has five seconds to enter before the door locks again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/world/europe/germanwings-crash.html?_r=0