The Germanwings plane crash where co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately jammed the Airbus into the French Alps causing the death of 150 people has cast the focus on airport security as well as mental health.

German forensic psychologist Christian Ludke told German tabloid, Bild, that the act of suicide-murder that involves the death of another 149 people is not a spontaneous decision but the result of a plan. The psychologist says that Lubitz possibly lived over the scenario of action hundreds of times before actually living out the death fantasy. He points out that people like Lubitz hide incredible aggression. In the days leading to the action, they cut off their social ties and stop all form of activity, choosing to close into themselves.

On his part Bernard Granger, a psychiatry professor at Rene Descartes College at Paris, believes that it is difficult to create a psychological profile of a man he has never met, however he can speculate. “In cases of delirious melancholy, the meaning of altruistic suicide is formed. Whoever is in such a position feels that the world is an awful place, they decide to save others, by killing them as well. In the classical scheme of altruistic suicide is the person who kills his family and then himself, however this is not the case as far as Lubitz is concerned,” says Granger.

German prosecutors who investigated his famkly home at Montabaur and Dusseldorf flat state that Lubitz suffered from a psychological illness that he had hidden from Germanwings and had received leave that he never used. Psychotropic medicines were found in his home, however there was no suicide note to indicate whether the crash had been politically or religiously motivated.

The mystery surrounding his personality deepens as other sides of his personality come out to play. Klaus Ruttke, owner of the aviation club frequented by Lubitz, states that the co-pilot was “likeable, pleasant and polite.” People who knew him were speechless upon realizing what he had done as they knew him as a charming young marathon runner.

His girlfriend, Kathrin Goldbach, had recently lost patience with his erratic behavior and left, fearing for her safety. Friends said he would tell her what to wear and how to speak. His insecurity caused him to be controlling and led him to cheat on the 26-year-old with a Germanwings stewardess known as Maria. Their 7-year-relationshiop had always been patchy and sickly.

The stewardess involved in the love fling said that Lubitz always wanted assurances as to how he looked. he would wake up from nightmares screamaing, “We’re going down!” Furthermore, he had once predicted that he would do something to change the system so that the world would know his name.

It was revealed that Lubitz had both personal and professional problems. He was tormented by blurred vision that caused him to fear that his pilot’s license would be revoked.

Inspiration

Bild is looking at what could have been the inspiration for Lubitz’s actions. It is known that Lubitz had carefully studied the LAM flight over Namibia where a pilot had also committed a suicide-murder involving hundreds of people after locking his co-pilot out of the cockpit.

Liberation newspaper speculates asa to whether he had viewed the Pedro Almodovar film “Relatos Salvajes” where a pilot purposely crashes the plane into a residential area.