Prosecutor: Doctors felt Germanwings co-pilot unfit to fly

The co-pilot who crashed a Germanwings jet into the Alps feared he was losing his eyesight, and some of the many doctors he consulted felt he was unfit to fly, said French Prosecutor Brice Robin. The doctors didn’t report their concerns to Andreas Lubitz’s employers, however, because of German patient privacy laws, Robin told reporters in Paris on Thursday. Robin updated reporters on the status of the investigation into the March 24 crash, which killed all 150 people aboard. Families are just starting to receive remains of their loved ones and will start holding burials in the coming days and weeks.

How to handle medical privilege and flight security when you have a fragile pilot will be one of the key questions in the judicial inquiry.

Brice Robin

Lubitz saw 41 doctors over the course of five years and seven medical appointments within the month before the March 24 crash, including three appointments with a psychiatrist. In Germany, doctors risk prison if they disclose information about their patients to anyone unless there is evidence they intend to commit a serious crime or harm themselves.

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