Official: Germanwings co-pilot feared he was going blind

Associated Press

PARIS

Fearing he was going blind, the co-pilot who slammed a Germanwings jet into the Alps took sick days at work, upped his dosage of an antidepressant and reached out to doctors, but they didn’t tell his employer they thought he was unfit to fly because of German privacy laws, a French prosecutor said Thursday.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin presented new details of his criminal investigation into the case after meeting in Paris with many grieving relatives of the 150 people who died on the Germanwings flight co-piloted by Andreas Lubitz.

The March 24 crash, blamed on Lubitz, has put a spotlight on possible mental-health issues involving flight crews.

Robin announced he was handing over his initial inquiry to three investigating magistrates who will try to determine who – if anyone – can be brought to trial in an involuntary-manslaughter case in which the main culprit died in the crash.

The news came as families have just started to receive the remains of their loved ones for burials in the coming days and weeks.

The investigation so far “has enabled us to confirm without a shadow of a doubt ... Mr. Andreas Lubitz deliberately destroyed the plane and deliberately killed 150 people, including himself,” Robin told reporters.

In a new development, Robin said information from Lubitz’s tablet PC showed he also had investigated vision problems, and “feared going blind,” which would have ended the 27-year-old’s aviation career.