Headline Of The Day

Via the London Standard:

The co-pilot who deliberately crashed a plane into a mountainside in the French Alps was suffering from depression and 'a personal life crisis,' according to reports. Andreas Lubitz, 28, had deliberately put the Germanwings airliner into a descent after the captain left the cockpit, French prosecutors said after analysing evidence from the recovered cockpit voice recorder. 150 people were killed, including babies, 16 schoolchildren and the flight's cabin crew and pilot. The head of Lufthansa, Germanwings parent company, admitted Lubitz had taken a long break from pilot training, while German media reported he had been battling mental health issues. Investigators are focusing on his "personal, family and professional environment" to try to determine why he locked his captain out of the cockpit and reset the autopilot to take the doomed plane from 38,000 feet to just 100ft. According to German newspaper Bild, Lubitz was going through a "personal life crisis", while the Der Spiegel newspaper said he had taken a break in training because of "burnout-syndrome".

More from the Daily Mail:

Yesterday, the boss of Germanwings admitted Lubitz had slipped through the ‘safety net’ and should never have been flying. It was also revealed that the fitness fanatic had suffered from depression and ‘burnout’ which had held up his career. He reportedly received a year and half of psychiatric treatment and was at one point recommended to be examined by a doctor before flying. But, incredibly, he passed his psychological assessments and was later considered fit to fly. Germany’s Federal Aviation Office confirmed this morning that Lubitz had a medical condition noted in his pilot’s records which required him to have a regular examination. It was reported this morning that during his education at the Lufthansa Flight School in Phoenix, Arizona, he was listed temporarily as 'unfliable'. It was suggested today that Lubitz - who had worked for Lufthansa as a cabin attendant for nearly a year before being accepted for flight training - may have been teased by other pilot's over his previous role. A friend said: 'His nickname was "Tomato Andy" - a reference to his past employment as a flight steward'.

And from Sky News:

Prosecutors investigating the Germanwings crash have said there were indications the co-pilot hid his illness from his employers. In a news conference on Friday, the prosecutors said that Andreas Lubitz hid a sick note on the day the Airbus A320 crashed into a mountainside during a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. The torn-up note, dated on the day of the crash on Tuesday, was found in the 27-year-old's flat in Dusseldorf. The prosecutors added that documents showed he was receiving medical treatment, but that no suicide note or claim of responsibility for the crash was found.