EXCLUSIVE: Twisted Obsessions of Killer in Cockpit: Lubitz Trawled 'Dark Side' of the Web

SUNDAY EXPRESS: KILLER co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was trawling suicide and gay websites as he spiralled into mental illness.

The 27-year-old also had problems with his eyesight and tore up sick notes from his doctors after fearing his mental state could lose him his job.

Just weeks before crashing the Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 plane, killing 149 passengers, he had learned he could also face a big pay cut and changes to his company pension.

A police source in Dusseldorf said: “We have a team disassembling his computer, and that of his girlfriend, because the information that we received was that he trawled the dark side of the web visiting, among other things, sites containing gay porn, suicide themes and sexual perversions.”

Lubitz also endured the nickname “Tomato Andy”, a German term for repressed homosexuals and a dig at his previous job as a flight attendant.

Reports have suggested he was troubled by his sexuality and also seeking treatment for vision problems. Last year he scared a girlfriend with remarks that showed his mind was in a dark and secretive place. » | James Murray and James Fielding | Sunday, March 29, 2015

Andreas Lubitz's Father 'Devastated... a Man Whose Life Has Broken Down'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sympathy for father of Germanwings crash co-pilot, who is "at the centre of a tragedy he did not seek"

The father of the Germanwings co-pilot who allegedly deliberately crashed his plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, is “devastated, completely shattered” by his son’s act, a French official who spoke to him said.

“He is carrying on his back the entire weight of the drama. He is a man whose life has broken down,” said Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bléone, a small town near the site of the crash.

The parents of Andreas Lubitz have not spoken in public since the crash on Tuesday. They were questioned by French police during their stay in France and German police were due to talk them when they returned to Germany.

Mr Bartolini said he met them when they visited the crash site and attended a memorial ceremony nearby on Thursday along with families of the passengers and crew who died. » | Rory Mulholland, in Paris | Saturday, March 28, 2015

Die seltsam schnelle Festlegung auf eine Wahrheit

BASLER ZEITUNG: Die Untersuchung von Flugzeugunglücken dauert meist Jahre. Beim Germanwings-Absturz schien nach 48 Stunden alles klar. Ermittler und Piloten sind empört – und warnen vor fatalen Schlussfolgerungen.

Der Ablauf widerspricht allen Regularien einer neutralen Aufklärung eines Flugzeugabsturzes. Keine 48 Stunden nachdem Unglücksflug 4U9525 von Germanwings gegen einen Berg in Südfrankreich prallte, scheint der genaue Ablauf festzustehen. » | Samstag 28. März 2015

What Religion Was Andreas Lubitz? Debate Grows over Germanwings Pilot's Background

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Since it emerged that Germanwings airlines' co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately 'accelerated' the plane after locking out the captain to crash the jetliner into the French Alps, there have been many who have raised questions on his religious background.

Close friends of the 28-year old Germanwings pilot remember him as a "rather quiet, but a friendly young man."

Many on social media, however, refuse to believe the explanation that the German pilot, whose full name is Andreas Guenter Lubitz, had no terror links and in fact "had no reason to do it."

During the news conference, French prosecutor Brice Robin refused to give information on Andreas Lubitz's religion, saying: "I don't think it's necessarily what we should be looking for."

But that has not stopped many from counter-arguing that the religion of the pilot, who deliberately crashed the Germanwings Flight 9525 killing all 150 people onboard, is an important cue to investigate the motive of the "mass murderer." » | Johnlee Varghese | Friday, March 27, 2015

Angela Merkel spricht über die Tragödie des Germanwings-Flugzeugabsturzes (with English Subtitles)

Germanwings Crash Raises Security Threat Posed by Insiders

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: At least eight plane crashes in past four decades suspected deliberately caused by pilots or other insiders

Evidence that the co-pilot on the Germanwings flight that crashed in France on Tuesday locked the pilot out of the cockpit is raising fresh concerns about a danger that aviation and security regulators consider among the least controllable: the potential threat posed by insiders.

The pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A320 jet, which crashed in the French Alps with 150 people on board, had left the cockpit just before the plane began its descent, French prosecutors said on Thursday. The pilot was unable to re-enter the cockpit and the plane crashed roughly 10 minutes later. » | Daniel Michaels | Thursday, March 26, 2015

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel zeigt sich vom Absturz tief betroffen