Airline executives visit Germanwings crash site

Lufthansa’s chief executive said Wednesday it would take “a long, long time” to understand what led to a deadly crash in the French Alps last week — but refused to say what the airline knew about the mental health of the co-pilot suspected of deliberately destroying the plane.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr and the head of its low-cost airline Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann, visited the crash area Wednesday amid mounting questions about how much the airlines knew about co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s psychological state and why they haven’t released more information about it.

The two men laid flowers and then stood silently facing a stone monument to the plane’s 150 victims. The monument looks toward the mountains where the Germanwings A320 crashed and shattered into thousands of pieces March 24. It bears a memorial message in German, Spanish, French and English.

Spohr said the airline is “learning more every day” about what might have led to the crash but “it will take a long, long time to understand how this could happen.”

He then deflected questions from reporters at the site in Seyne-les-Alpes and drove away.

Based on audio from the plane’s voice data recorder, investigators believe Lubitz intentionally crashed the plane and are trying to figure out why.

Lufthansa acknowledged Tuesday that it knew six years ago that Lubitz had suffered from an episode of “severe depression” before he finished his flight training at the German airline, but said he had passed all his medical checks since then.

The airline did not mention the severe depression episode when questions were raised last week about Lubitz’s medical history.

German prosecutors say Lubitz’s medical records from before he received his pilot’s license referred to “suicidal tendencies,” but visits to doctors since then showed no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression against others.

The revelations intensify questions about how much Lufthansa and its insurers will pay in damages for the passengers who died — and about how thoroughly the aviation industry and government regulators screen pilots for psychological problems.

At the crash site Wednesday, authorities said they have finished collecting human remains.

“At the crash site there are no longer any visible remains,” said Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Menichini.

Lt. Luc Poussel said all that’s left are “belongings and pieces of metal.”

Officials at France’s national criminal laboratory near Paris say it will take a few months for the painstaking identification process to be complete and for the remains to be returned to the families.

New images of the recovery operation show investigators tugging out large, mangled pieces of the plane: tires, sections of the plane with several twisted windows and what looks like a piece of the orange-painted tail.

Questions persisted Wednesday about reports in the German daily Bild and the French magazine Paris Match about a video they say was taken by someone inside the cabin of the doomed plane shortly before it crashed. The publications say their reporters were shown the video, which they said was found on a memory chip that could have come from a cellphone.

Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin, who is overseeing the French criminal investigation into the crash, told The Associated Press that investigators had found no such video. But in a statement Wednesday, he left open the possibility that such video had been found but not given to authorities.

“In the hypothesis that someone is in possession of such a video, he or she should submit it immediately to investigators,” he said.

The latest disclosure “really does suggest a potential problem with the airline’s oversight of this aviator,” said Alan E. Diehl, a former air safety investigator with the NTSB and a former scientist for human performance at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Diehl said the global shortage of pilots might be leading to lax hiring standards. Every week, there are nearly 30 new jets rolling off assembly lines. Each one requires airlines to hire and train at least 10 to 12 new pilots.

“Maybe some of these carriers, not just Germanwings, are taking people that they wouldn’t normally take,” Diehl said.

In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration in 2010 starting allowing some pilots who are taking medication for mild to moderate depression to continue flying on a case-by-case basis. Pilots taking drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro were allowed to fly if granted a special medical certificate. One prerequisite was the successful treatment on the medication for at least 12 months.

Dr. Warren Silberman, manager of medical certification for the FAA until the end of 2011, said pilots in the US can fly again even after having suicidal thoughts.

“It really would depend on what the psychiatrist or psychologist that he saw wrote, and what his symptoms were,” Silberman said. “The minute he declares he is depressed, he is grounded. And if he goes on medication, he’s definitely grounded.”

After treatment, “If you were doing better after the depressive episode and the (doctor’s) note was favorable, then the FAA would likely clear you,” he said. Admitting suicidal thoughts would probably mean a longer period of being grounded, and the pilot’s case would probably wind up in the hands of the FAA’s chief psychiatrist in Washington, he said.

Silberman said that over time pilots become more willing to discuss their mental state with their doctors, and there are employee-assistance programs to help them. Still, pilots often hide their medical problems.

Then there’s liability.

The fact Lufthansa knew of Lubitz’s illness only worsens the airline’s legal position, even if cases are settled and not brought to trial.

Airlines on international flights are required to compensate relatives of victims for proven damages of up to a limit of about $157,000 — regardless of what caused the crash. However, higher compensation is possible if a carrier is held liable.

“I think as a practical and legal matter Lufthansa is at this point liable for the accident,” said Brian Alexander, an international aviation attorney with Kreindler & Kreindler in New York.

“This makes the case, which was already indefensible, even more so,” said Jonathan C. Reiter, a US attorney who has represented family members of a person who died in a 1999 EgyptAir crash investigators say was caused by the co-pilot, as well as people aboard a 2012 JetBlue flight where the pilot had a mental breakdown and had to be restrained. That flight landed safely.

“They’re responsible. That’s the end of it,” said Reiter. “They can’t say, we couldn’t possibly have known. They did know.”

In Frankfurt, Lufthansa spokeswoman Kerstin Lau said insurers have already reserved $300 million to deal with “all costs arising in connection with the case.”

Lufthansa offered immediate aid last week of up to 50,000 euros ($54,250) per passenger to relatives of the victims. Those payments are separate from eventual compensation payments.

An Israeli national living in Barcelona, Eyal Baum, 39, was killed on the flight. He was due to return to Israel next week ahead of the upcoming Passover festival, his family said.