Dad of killer Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz claims his son did NOT deliberately down jet – sparking fresh agony for Brit families
Guenter Lubitz slammed for timing his outlandish claims for the moment mourners mark exactly two years since Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane into the Alps in a 500mph death dive
THE father of kamikaze pilot Andreas Lubitz sparked fury today as he used the second anniversary of the Germanwings disaster to claim his son was innocent.
Guenter Lubitz dismissed the findings of international experts who concluded the 27-year-old deliberately crashed the plane into the Alps.
The father has hired aviation expert Tim van Beveren to challenge the official findings that the depressed first officer locked the captain out of the cockpit before steering the jet into a nosedive.
Families of his son's 149 victims are disgusted at the timing of a press conference - two years to the day since the tragedy on March 24, 2015.
Elmar Giemulla, a lawyer for relatives of 42 victims, slammed it as "irresponsible" and "tasteless".
He said: "I think it's very bad - to say this exactly to the second when the plane crashed two years ago is irresponsible.
"I suspect Mr Lubitz would like to spread a theory that will free his son from all guilt."
Mr Lubitz told the press conference: "No matter what day we chose, it would not have been the right one. We did not choose this day to hurt anyone.
"We too are relatives who lost a loved one in that crash.
"Myself, my wife and my younger son for whom I speak bear a sadness. However, that is totally different to other families because our son was blamed alone for the crash.
"I remain bewildered how to cope with the loss of my son."
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Andreas Lubitz wrongly feared he was losing his eyesight - which would have spelled the end of his dream career - and hid his suicidal urges from bosses, investigators found.
On the day of the crash he ripped up a sicknote telling him not to work.
Cockpit recordings captured the frantic captain yelling “For the love of God, open this door" as Lubitz put Germanwings Flight 9525 into a 500mph death dive over southern France en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
All 144 passengers and six crew including himself were killed when the Airbus A320 smashed into a mountain.
Victims included two Brits and a mum and baby who lived in the UK, and a party of 16 German teenagers returning from a school trip in Spain.
But the killer pilot's dad said today: "Massive insults have hurt me and my family. Most of the reports say he was depressed. But he was not depressed at the time of the crash but had been consulting doctors over fear of losing his sight.
"Our son was a very responsible person. He had no reason to plan and carry out a suicide, and certainly not to take another 149 innocent people with him."
Asked if he thought his son was innocent he said: "We are on the hunt for the truth."
Van Beveren, author of numerous aviation books and films, used weather charts, extracts from the official findings and aircraft technical detail - but came to come to no firm conclusion saying only that "no one could say what actually happened that day."
The expert said the "human factor" in the crash was absent in the official investigation reports.
He claimed the investigation "was simply not handled at all correctly" and added: "There is no evidence he deliberately brought down this plane."
They spoke in Berlin as mourners laid flowers and linked arms to remember the victims at Barcelona airport and the Joseph Koenig high school in Haltern am See.
Other relatives gathered at the crash site 6,000ft up a mountain for the unveiling of a new memorial.
Before the press conference there was speculation Mr Lubitz would claim his son may have been incapacitated by toxic fumes leaking into the cockpit.
But aviation investigator Christine Negroni said of this theory: “The fact that no one else seems to have experienced it makes it seem even less likely.
“There does seem to be strong reason to suggest investigators got it right in the case of Andreas: his documented psychological instability; the fact that he quit training for nine months to get treatment.”
Families of the four victims who lived in Britain are to set sue flight operator Germanwings in the UK.
Lawyers for the relatives of businessman Martyn Matthews, 50, catering student Paul Bramley, 28, mum Marina Bandres, 37, and her baby son Julian were due to file a damages claim in the Royal Courts of Justice in London this week.
Martyn’s grieving widow Sharon told The Sun: “No family must ever go through what we have been through.”
Aviation law specialist Clive Garner, who represents the UK victims, says: “Lubitz had a history of depression and suicidal tendencies.
“Should that have been sufficient for Germanwings to have cancelled his training? Because if they had, 149 people would still be alive today.”
Elmar Giemulla, a lawyer for some victims’ families, said after Mr Lubitz raised similar doubts last month: “For survivors it is very stressful to be confronted with such suspicions."
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