Families' fury at airline as police find pile of torn-up sick notes in home of killer co-pilot

[Surya Gayatri]

Last edited Fri Mar 27, 2015, 08:55 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3013743/Germanwings-pilot-slipped-safety-net-devastating-consequences.html

Following a search of Lubitz's Dusseldorf apartment, investigators today revealed they had found old torn-up sick leave notes, current ones and one issued for the day of the disaster.

Prosecutors said the finds indicate 28-year-old Lubitz may have had a medical condition which he kept secret from his employers, budget airline Germanwings. They said have found no suicide note or claim of responsibility and no evidence of a political or religious motivation.

Prosecutor's spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a written statement that torn-up sick notes for the day of the crash 'support the current preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues'.

Such sick notes from doctors excusing employees from work are common in Germany and issued even for minor illnesses. Mr Herrenbrueck didn't say details of what illness Lubitz was suffering from.
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Wouldn't want to be in Lufthansa's shoes right now. They must be in hyper-crisis mode in apprehension of the multi-million $ lawsuits for failure of their 'fit-to-fly' assessment procedures.

[Nay]

1. I'll be interested to find out why the sick notes were given to the sick person to give

to the employer -- especially if it referred to a mental or physical illness that would ground people from jobs that involve responsibility for others' lives. It seems like docs should have sent reports straight to the employer. There should be no way an employee could hide disqualifying medical conditions from an employer.

Along with a breakup with his fiancee, the knowledge that he would soon be discovered to have a disqualifying illness that would destroy a career he loved -- well, he probably couldn't face that. It's horrible that he took out a whole planefull of people just to kill himself.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Did the doc know he was dealing with an active commercial pilot--

or did Lubitz hide his profession from his personal physician?

[cwydro]

2. This just

keeps getting worse.

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Worser and worser--would NOT want to be in Lufthansa management's

shoes right now.

Their legal staff is working 24-hour days, I suspect.