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Alps Plane Crash: Copilot Hid Illness from Bosses

03-27-2015
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Andreas Lubitz, the copilot of downed Germanwings Flight 9225, appears to have concealed evidence of an illness from his bosses, prosecutors said Friday.
 
He also hid the fact that he'd been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed the passenger plane in the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers on board. 
 
Torn-up sick notes "support the current preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues," prosecutor's spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a statement.
 
The new information surfaced as German officials work to figure out the 28-year-old's motives.

So far, they've learned Lubitz began his flight training in 2008, part of it in the United States at a flight center near Phoenix.

And Germany's Federal Aviation Office noted that Lubitz had a medical condition noted in his pilot's medical certificate.

"We have a pilot license and a medical certificate. There is a SIC record," the office's spokesman, Holger Kasperski, told the Wall Street Journal. "SIC means specific regular examination. We don't know what (condition) it refers to."
 
Still, Herrenbrueck said no suicide note was found and that there was no sign of any political or religious motivation for Lubitz's actions.
           
Meanwhile, the tragedy is causing several international airlines to make changes to match U.S. policy, which requires two in the cockpit at all times.

Airlines are also questioning the idea of an impenetrable cockpit door.

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