Germanwings plane crash: Live updates as investigation continues into disaster...
Andreas Lubitz was receiving treatment for a medical condition up until the day of the crash, it has been revealed.
The co-pilot had written a number of sick notes, including one dated to the day of the crash, but they were found torn to bits at his home.
For the latest, read on.
7:49 pm
"More or less you will have unlimited financial damage,"
"More or less you will have unlimited financial damage," said Marco Abate, a German aviation lawyer.To avoid liability, a carrier has to prove that the crash was not due to "negligence or other wrongful act" by its employees, according to Article 21 of the 1999 Montreal Convention.
That would be a difficult argument to make when a pilot intentionally crashes a plane into a mountain, and one that Lufthansa would likely avoid as it could further damage the brand, Mr Abate said.
7:40 pm
Lufthansa offers to pay £36,000 per passenger in immediate financial assistance
German airline Lufthansa has offered to pay up to 50,000 euros
(£36,633) in immediate financial assistance per passenger on the
crashed plane of its subsidiary Germanwings, a spokeswoman said today.Earlier it was announced the company could face "unlimited" compensation claims for the crash that killed 150 people in the French Alps.
It would be difficult, even counter-productive, for the German carrier to try to avoid liability, experts say.
Under a treaty governing deaths and injuries aboard international flights, airlines are required to compensate relatives of victims for proven damages of up to a limit currently set at about £100,000 - regardless of what caused the crash.
But higher compensation is possible if a carrier is held liable.
6:50 pm
Experts warn against jumping to conclusions about Lubitz's mental state
Other experts have warned against jumping to conclusions about Lubitz's mental state.Seena Fazel, professor of forensic psychiatry and Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at Oxford University, said: "It is very difficult to comment on this particular case as the information is so limited, and speculation about underlying causes could be stigmatising and damaging.
"But it is important to bear in mind that depression is a treatable disease, and the presence of a depressive illness in the past does not necessarily tell us anything about someone's current mental health.
"Furthermore, research on mass killings associated with suicide suggests that mental illness at the time of death is rare, and the individuals perpetrating them seem to be motivated by a complex set of individual and social factors that interact in unpredictable ways.
"This has meant that it is not possible to identify high-risk individuals.
"Even the more common but still rare outcome of suicide is very difficult to predict, and screening tools are limited by a large number of false positives which would overwhelm health services if they led to interventions."
6:47 pm
Pilots 'should have private cabin with own bathroom' to improve security
The Spanish union for pilots, SEPRA says planes should have a private
cabin with bathroom and sitting room away from the main passenger area.Vice-president Javier Gómez Barrero told the Spanish news agency Efe that this would help to improve security during flights.
He said if the authorities were considering changing protocols and rules in the wake of the Germanwings tragedy, pilots and professionals should be fully consulted.
6:04 pm
Co-pilot was a 'two in a million' rarity, expert claims
Germanwings air crash co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was a two in a million
rarity and may have been a psychopath, an expert has claimed.What made him so unusual was his apparent willingness to kill others when he committed suicide, Dr Paul Keedwell said.
Dr Keedwell, a consultant psychiatrist and specialist in mood disorders, said: "Murder-suicide is extremely rare: it is committed by two to three people in every million per year (0.0002-0.0003% of the population per year), and this rate is stable over time.
"For obvious reasons we cannot know the perpetrator's mental state at the time of the homicide in these cases.
"Among cases of murder suicide in general, the rate of previously diagnosed depression varies from 40% to 60%, depending on the context. Of those who are depressed, very few are being treated for it.
"It is important to realise that most murder-suicide involves a man and his spouse so this is where most of the data will come from. Murder-suicide in pilots or in gun massacres is vanishingly rare."
5:39 pm
Rescue workers say they are treating the crash site like a "crime scene"
Rescue workers say they are treating the crash site like a "crime
scene", with everything found being marked and recorded in precision
detail.Others say it is like an archaeological dig and in some places, they are having to use their bare hands to sift through the earth because the ground is so hard and remains may have been embedded.
The huge area where the plane crashed has been divided into grids and coloured markers used to identify where bodies have been found.
The land is so steep in places that rescue workers need to be tied together.
Though identity cards and jewellery is being found, only three tests are considered infallible; DNA, finger-prints and dental.A make-shift identification centre has been built by the police.
5:22 pm
Timeline of tragic events
Just 40 minutes after Flight 4U9525 took off from Barcelona it had smashed into pieces no bigger than a small car, killing all 150 people on board.Since then there has been a stream of dramatic revelations - including that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the jet after locking himself inside the cockpit.
Below is a timeline of events - and to see the full story click here.
Timeline: Germanwings plane crash investigation
DAY 1: TUESDAY MARCH 24 9.01am GMT (10.01am local time)
Germanwings Flight 4U9525 takes off from Barcelona, Spain, and
is expected to land in Dusseldorf, Germany, 90 minutes later. It is
carrying 150 people - 144 passengers and six crew
9.15am
Lubitz and his captain can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder talking 'courteously... like two normal pilots'
9.27am
The plane reaches its cruising altitude of 38,000ft as it approaches southern France
9.30am
The Airbus A320 makes its final contact with air traffic
controllers - a routine message about permission to continue on the
route near the settlement of Dignes (pictured)
9.30am (approx)
A chair is heard being pushed back and a door shuts. The
captain, who was thought to be leaving the cockpit to use the toilet,
tells Lubitz: 'You have control'
9.31am
Andreas Lubitz presses the button which sets the autopilot on a
descent from 38,000ft to 100ft - the lowest possible. The button can
only be pressed voluntarily
9.31am (approx)
The captain knocks on the cockpit door but there is no reply. His attempts to unlock the door are seemingly blocked
9.31am - 9.40am
The captain shouts, uses the intercom and tries to break down
the door, even reportedly using an axe. Lubitz (pictured) is silent
throughout but still breathing
9.35am
French air traffic controllers issue the DETRESFA distress
signal after seeing the dramatic drop in altitude and failing to get a
response from Lubitz. The plane is treated as a priority for a forced
landing
9.39am (approx)
Passengers, who included Brit Paul Bramley, can be heard
screaming 'at the last moment' as proximity alarms sound inside the
plane and they realise what is happening
9.40am
Radar picks up the last trace of the plane at 6,175ft, around the same height as the top of the peaks in the French Alps
9.41am
The plane hits the mountain at 430mph and smashes into pieces no
bigger than a small car. There is thought to be a first impact, with
the plane skimming the terrain before hurtling into a ravine
10.30am
Reports begin circulating on Twitter that a plane has
disappeared from radar in the French Alps. Real-time monitoring mean
users can see its dramatic drop in altitude immediately
10.52am
Germanwings says it is aware of reports one of its planes has crashed but cannot confirm anything
11am
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls confirms the crash and President Hollande says there are 'no survivors' a few minutes later
1pm
Germanwings confirms the accident and says it has set up a hotline for victims' families with parent firm Lufthansa
1.30pm
First reports emerge of the tragic group of 16 German exchange students who were on board the doomed jet
2pm
Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann appears the first of many
press conferences and insists the jet was checked by engineers just 24
hours before it flew
4pm
First pictures emerge of the crash site, showing scattered
pieces of fuselage no bigger than a small car. It's confirmed there are
no survivors
6.30pm
First pictures of victims emerge, including celebrated opera
singer Oleg Bryjak who had performed in Paris, London, Los Angeles and
Tokyo
10pm
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says it is likely there were British nationals on board
DAY 2: WEDNESDAY MARCH 25
Details emerge throughout the day of the three British victims.
They were student Paul Bramley from Hull, businessman Martyn Matthews
from Wolverhampton, and Julian Pracz-Bandres, a seven-month-old boy from
Manchester whose Spanish-born mum Marina was also killed
11.30am
Lufthansa's CEO Thomas Winkelmann reveals Germans, Spaniards,
Australians and Britons were on board with other passengers from
Holland, Japan, Belgium, Argentina, Iran and the US
12.30pm
The first photos emerge of the mangled cockpit voice recorder,
one of two so-called black boxes - actually coloured orange - which were
on board the plane
2pm
The leaders of Germany, France and Spain tour the crash site together and pay tribute to the victims
8.30pm
Lufthansa announces it will lay on special flights to Marseilles for victims' families the following morning
DAY 3: THURSDAY MARCH 26 1am (approx)
The New York Times reveals one of the two pilots was locked out
of the cockpit and ended up banging on the door, trying to get back in
9.30am
Further reports emerge from the French news agency AFP that there was a violent struggle on board the plane
11.45am
In a horrifying press conference, Marseilles prosecutor Brice
Robin reveals the black box's final recording - which shows co-pilot
Andreas Lubitz steered the Airbus deliberately into the mountain after
locking the captain out during a toilet break
12.15pm
First picture emerges of Lubitz as it's revealed he became a
first officer with Lufthansa in 2013 after years of being a flight
attendant
1.30pm
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr admits Lubitz's training was 'interrupted' six years ago but insists he was '100% fit to fly'
4.30pm
Police search Lubitz's Dusseldorf home and his parents' house in
the town of Montabaur, removing a 'key' piece of evidence which is
revealed the next day
6pm
easyJet reveals it is changing its rules so two people must always be in the cockpit. Other airlines quickly follow suit
DAY 4: FRIDAY MARCH 27
Reports become firmly established in the German media that
Lubitz had mental health problems and depression. Bild reports that he
had 18 months of psychiatric help during his Lufthansa training
9am
Germanwings asks TfL, who run the London Underground, to remove
advertising with the unfortunate slogan 'get ready to be surprised'
10.30am
Aviation authorities confirm Lubitz had an ongoing medical condition on his file, but will not say what the condition was
11.45am
German prosecutors reveal they have found a torn-up sick note at
Lubitz's home - from the day of the crash - which says he should not
have been working. They say he was hiding the illness from his employers
1pm
It's revealed victims' families could receive up to £700,000
each, or £93,000 even if Lufthansa is in no way at fault. The Airbus
A320 was reportedly insured for £4.4million
3.30pm
It's revealed Lubitz had been to hospital on March 10, just two weeks before the crash
5:13 pm
Call for a full civil accident investigation
Airline industry body IATA today called for a full civil accident
investigation of this week's crash of a Germanwings aircraft in the
French Alps."The interests of aviation safety are best served by considerations made in light of full and complete information and understanding of any accident, or issue concerning safety or security," IATA said in a statement.
It added that thorough accident investigation is a pillar of the industry's safety performance.
4:57 pm
Floral tributes near crash site
Floral tributes have been left near the scene of the Germanwings crash. Flowers are pictured around a stone slab monument, carved in French, German, Spanish and English, in memory of the victims.
They have been left in the small village of Le Vernet, French Alps, earlier today.
Getty
4:55 pm
Each day about nine million people board aircraft as passengers
Mr Tyler continued: "Each day about nine million people board
aircraft as passengers. We work as hard as possible to earn and keep
their trust by transporting them safely to their destination."Airlines are licensed by national governments. They comply with the safety regulations and procedures of those national governments.
"This includes procedures with respect to cockpit access and medical requirements. Through experience and sharing of best practices many will exceed those requirements with their own company policies.
"With the (Marseille) prosecutor's shocking revelations yesterday, individual carriers around the world are already looking at their procedures. This proactive approach is characteristic of an industry that places safety at the top of its priority list.
"It is, however, imperative that the air accident investigation is fully completed in order to determine any and all outcomes which can help prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
"The interests of aviation safety are best served by considerations made in light of full and complete information and understanding of any accident, or issue concerning safety or security."
4:45 pm
'Flying remains the safest way to travel'
Air passengers should be assured that flying remains the safest way to travel, a world airline organisation chief has said.The Germanwings disaster was "a terrible event" said Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association.
In his organisation's first comments since Tuesday's crash, he went on: "Words cannot adequately express the sorrow that we all feel. Our thoughts are with the friends and families of all those involved in this unthinkable tragedy.
"People should be re-assured that flying remains the safest way to travel. Any accident is one too many. People can take further confidence in the well-established and constant determination of the aviation industry and governments to make this safe industry even safer."
4:35 pm
More pictures of recovery effort
We now have more pictures of the ongoing recovery effort in the Alps. Rescue workers below are being winched into a Gendarmerie helicopter at the crash site of a Germanwings Airbus A320, near Seyne-les-Alpes.
The images have come from French Interior Ministry as the operation stretches into its fourth day.
4:30 pm
Danish authorities to review all physical and mental tests of pilots
Experts say that one security rule is to keep the door shut as much
as possible, something which a two-person rule would not necessarily
encourage. Also, replacement staff might not have had the same medical and psychological checks.
Denmark's transport minister Magnus Heunicke said the Danish Transport Authority would review all physical and mental tests of pilots flying to and from Denmark.
4:27 pm
Swift decision 'to restore confidence in air travel'
The president of the German pilots union Cockpit said his
organisation would support measures requiring airlines to have two
people in the cockpit at all times during a flight, but cautioned that
such a move would not necessarily solve all security problems."We would appreciate a swift decision in order to restore confidence in air travel," Ilja Schulz said.
"It's fine as an intermediate measure but once this investigation has been completed, all sides need to sit down and examine what measures can improve security without causing new problems."
4:26 pm
Wizz Air, Thomas Cook and others have already adopted the policy
German airline Germania, Hungary-based low-cost airline Wizz Air and
Belgian tour operator Thomas Cook said today they had adopted the
policy.Yesterday, easyJet and Europe's third largest budget airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, said they would adopt the rule. Air Canada said the same.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US airlines revamped their policies regarding staffing in the cockpit, but the procedure is not standard in Europe or Canada.
4:25 pm
Two in cockpit across Europe - recommendation
Europe's aviation safety agency has recommended that airlines always
have two people in the cockpit of a flying aircraft after it emerged
that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 apparently locked himself
in the cockpit to crash the plane.European airlines, including the Lufthansa Group that includes Germanwings, have committed to impose the measure as soon as possible.
European Aviation Safety Agency executive director Patrick Ky said: "While we are still mourning the victims, all our efforts focus on improving the safety and security of passengers and crews."
Before the official recommendation, Lufthansa said it would move to the two-person rule "as soon as possible" across its airlines, which also include Austrian Airlines and Swiss Air.
4:16 pm
Lubitz was in for "diagnostic evaluation"
Dusseldorf University Hospital said in a statement today that Lubitz
had been a patient and had last came to the hospital for "diagnostic
evaluation" on March 10. It declined to provide details about his condition but denied German media reports that it had treated the pilot for depression.
The hospital says it has submitted Lubitz's patient record to prosecutors in Dusseldorf, where he lived.
A German aviation official said today that Lubitz's file at the country's Federal Aviation Office contained a "SIC" note, meaning that he needed "specific regular medical examination".
But neighbours described a man whose physical health was superb.
"He definitely did not smoke. He really took care of himself. He always went jogging. I am not sure whether he did marathons, but he was very healthy," said Johannes Rossmann, who lived a few doors down from Lubitz's other home in Montabaur.
4:15 pm
Prosecutor's office statement
"Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards
an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors," said the
prosecutors' office in Dusseldorf. The office went on: "The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues."
The prosecutors said the search had found no suicide note or confession, "nor was there any evidence of a political or religious background to what happened".
4:14 pm
German prosecutors pouring over the medical history of Lubitz
German prosecutors are now pouring over the medical history of
Lubitz, 28, who deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 into the French
Alps last Tuesday killing all 150 people on board, including three
Britons.There were also reports that the captain locked out of the flight deck after Lubitz put the plane into a descent had used an axe in an unsuccessful to break down the cockpit door.
The sick note was among items found when police searched Lubitz's apartment in Dusseldorf.
4:05 pm
'Not a single intact body has been found'
French police working to recover remains from the Germanwings crash
site say they have recovered between 400 and 600 pieces of remains from
the 150 people who died.Speaking from the French Alps town of Seyne-les-Alpes, Colonel Patrick Touron of the gendarme service said: "We haven't found a single body intact."
He also said DNA samples had been taken from objects provided by the victims' families, such as toothbrushes, which could help identify the victims.
Capt Touron also said jewellery and other objects could help in the identification process.
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