The pilot who is believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane into the Alps last week had informed officials at Lufthansa's flight training school that he had suffered from severe depression.
Lufthansa's CEO had previously made a statement that the company was unaware of the reason that could have driven the co-pilot to crash the Airbus A320 into the French Alps since; he had a 100 percent fit to fly report.
Lufthansa said Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz left his pilot training for a period of several months but then passed medical checks confirming his fitness to fly. Lubitz told officials at a Lufthansa training school in 2009 that he had gone through a period of severe depression, the airline stated on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The statement is tarnishing the reputation of the airline and it's CEO Carsten Spohr, who told reporters last week that there was no reason 27-year-old Lubitz to deliberately crash a plane.
The fact that Lufthansa officials were aware of Lubitz's mental health and knew he was in the state of depression raises questions about the process for screening pilots. The airline can face legal actions from the crash victim's relatives.
Lubitz resumed training in 2009, he had provided the flight school with medical documents as prove that he had undergone an episode of severe depression. Dusseldorf state prosecutors said that Lubitz had been undergoing treatment for suicidal tendencies before he got his pilot license.
Email correspondence between Lubitz and the flight school had been discovered during internal investigation proving that the flight school knew the complete picture about his mental health, according to CNN News.
Lufthansa is already undergoing a lawsuit for damages caused by the crash; lawyers have asked the insurers to set aside $300 million to deal with claims, recovery costs and the loss of the aircraft.
For Germanwings to be able to limit its liability, it needs to establish that the employees and agents are not at fault and the crash was caused due to the error of a third party.