Prosecutor: Germanwings copilot feared going blind

PARIS - Fearing he was going blind, the copilot who slammed a Germanwings jet into the Alps took sick days at work, upped his dosage of an antidepressant, and consulted doctors, but they didn't tell his employer they thought he was unfit to fly because of German privacy laws, a 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 March 24 Germanwings flight copiloted by Andreas Lubitz.

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.

Investigators say Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and flew the plane into a French mountainside after having researched suicide methods and cockpit door rules and practiced an unusual descent.

In a new development, Robin said information from Lubitz's computer tablet showed he had also investigated vision problems, and "feared going blind," which would have ended his aviation career.

Lubitz, 27, who had a history of depression, had seven medical appointments in the month before the crash, including three with a psychiatrist, and had taken eight sick days off work, Robin said. Some of the doctors felt Lubitz was psychologically unstable, and some felt he was unfit to fly, but "unfortunately that information was not reported because of medical secrecy requirements," the prosecutor said.

Robin said that Lubitz sent an e-mail to one doctor just two weeks before the crash, saying he had doubled his dose of an antidepressant he was taking in a failed attempt to end near-sleepless nights as a result of worries about his vision. Robin said it wasn't yet certain whether the vision problems were real or imagined, but Lubitz clearly felt it was threatening his beloved career.

"He even said to some of those close to him that given this vision loss, life no longer had meaning," Robin said. Lubitz's girlfriend appeared to be aware of his vision problems, and his family to a lesser extent: Both she and his mother took him to some of his medical appointments, he added.

Robin's comments also exposed the long-term nature of Lubitz's troubles. He feared his vision troubles would spark a return of his depression that he once suffered, the prosecutor said.

In the last five years, Robin said, Lubitz consulted with 41 doctors.

In a March 10 e-mail to a doctor, Lubitz had indicated he could only sleep two hours a night and wanted urgent help, Robin said. Lubitz specified he was taking mirtazapine, an antidepressant, and had even doubled the dosage from 15 to 30 milligrams in a failed bid to improve his sleep, and his fear of going blind continued, the prosecutor added.

Investigators were going over Lubitz's remains to determine whether he had taken any medications the day of the flight.

Germanwings and parent company Lufthansa have said that Lubitz had passed all medical tests and was cleared by doctors as fit to fly. Robin said he had no evidence that the carrier knew of the copilot's visual worries.

In Germany, doctors risk prison if they disclose information about their patients to anyone unless there is evidence they intend to commit a serious crime or harm themselves. Lubitz had told his doctors not to share information among each other about his condition, Robin said.

Families of the victims, meanwhile, were focusing on the return of the remains and belongings of their loved ones, and possible redress. German lawyer Peter Kortas, whose firm represents relatives of 34 victims, said negotiations with Germanwings on compensation began several days ago. "In this moment everything else is not as important as the fact that the bodies, [the] remains be returned to their families," Kortas said. "The loss of the relatives should be compensated with also a suitable amount of money," he added.

While Kortas said Thursday's meeting with the prosecutors was "informative," he regretted that some questions remained. Relatives were told the procedure for returning remains and belongings, but not all got a date for the handover of remains.