Bio

Andreas Günter Lubitz was born on 18 December 1987 in Germany and was raised in Neuburg an der Donau, Bavaria, and later in Montabaur, Rhineland-Palatinate. During his youth, he developed an interest in aviation and began flight training at the Luftsportclub Westerwald, an aviation sports club based in Montabaur.

After completing high school, Lubitz was accepted into Lufthansa’s pilot trainee programme and began formal flight training in September 2008 at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen. His training was interrupted in November 2008 when he was hospitalised for a severe depressive episode. Following psychiatric evaluation and treatment, he was cleared to resume training in August 2009 after his condition was deemed resolved.

In November 2010, Lubitz relocated to Goodyear, Arizona, to continue his training at the Lufthansa Airline Training Center in the United States. While pursuing his commercial pilot’s licence, he worked as a flight attendant for Lufthansa from June 2011 to December 2013. He completed his pilot training and joined Germanwings as a first officer in June 2014.

Medical investigations later revealed that Lubitz had a documented history of mental health issues, including depression and psychosomatic symptoms. In the period leading up to March 2015, he had consulted numerous doctors for sleep disturbances and concerns about potential vision loss. Several physicians had declared him unfit to work shortly before the flight, but this information was not disclosed to his employer.

Murder Story

On 24 March 2015, Andreas Lubitz was serving as the first officer aboard Germanwings Flight 9525, a scheduled passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The aircraft, an Airbus A320-211, departed Barcelona at 10:01 CET with 144 passengers and six crew members on board.

At cruising altitude, while over French airspace, the captain left the cockpit. During this time, Lubitz locked the reinforced cockpit door from the inside and prevented re-entry. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft began a controlled descent from 38,000 feet without clearance from air traffic control.

Cockpit voice recordings later confirmed that Lubitz made no response to repeated attempts by air traffic controllers to establish contact. The captain attempted to regain access to the cockpit using the intercom and physical force but was unable to breach the secured door. Flight data showed that Lubitz manually adjusted the autopilot to descend to 100 feet and increased the aircraft’s speed during the descent.

After approximately ten minutes of continuous descent, the aircraft impacted mountainous terrain in the French Alps near Prads-Haute-Bléone at 10:41 CET. All 150 people on board were killed instantly. Seismic monitoring stations recorded the precise moment of impact, and rescue personnel confirmed there were no survivors.

Subsequent investigations conducted by the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, in cooperation with German authorities, concluded that the crash was the result of deliberate and planned actions by Lubitz. The final report, published on 13 March 2016, classified the incident as a murder–suicide.

Investigators found evidence that Lubitz had concealed medical assessments declaring him unfit to fly and had researched suicide methods and cockpit security systems in the days before the crash. Toxicology reports confirmed the presence of prescribed antidepressant and sleep medications in his system at the time of death.

Lubitz died on 24 March 2015 in the crash he intentionally caused. No criminal trial occurred due to his death, and the case was formally closed following the publication of the final investigative report.