The co-pilot thought to have deliberately crashed his Germanwings jet into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, kept secret the fact that he was written off sick on the day, German prosecutors said Friday.
Searches of his homes had netted “medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment”, including “torn-up and current sick leave notes, among them one covering the day of the crash,” they said.
This “backs up the suspicion” that Andreas Lubitz — who reportedly suffered from severe depression — “hid his illness from his employer and his colleagues”, said prosecutors in the western city of Duesseldorf in a statement.
They said that “interviews on this subject and the evaluation of medical records will take several more days”, and that the outcome would be made public “once reliable evidence is available”.
Authorities did not find a “suicide note or a confession”, or any evidence that the co-pilot’s actions may have been motivated by “a political or religious background”.
Officers had on Thursday combed through a flat Lubitz kept in Duesseldorf as well as the house where he lived with his parents in the small western town of Montabaur.
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