Flight Club Members Say Germanwings Co-Pilot Seemed Happy

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

David McHugh is in Montabaur, Germany, the hometown of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. Mr. McHugh is a reporter for the Associated Press, and he joins us now. And first, what have you been able to learn there about Andreas Lubitz?

DAVID MCHUGH: Well, what we did today was we visited the gliding club where he learned to fly.

SIEGEL: People must be stunned there from what they've heard this morning.

MCHUGH: Well, indeed. He had only recently been back at the club to renew his glider pilot's license. And he did not give any indication that anything was wrong in his life. Mr. Klaus Radke, who's the chairman of the gliding club, broke down in tears while he was talking to the media and television cameras. They're very downcast about this. They're - it's not one of those cases where someone jumps up and says aha. This person had this or that. You know, given the context, the one longtime club member Peter Ruecker that I talked to said that he'd gone back in his mind and sort of gone over Andreas's visit last fall to think over whether there was any hint that things weren't as they should be, and he said he honestly couldn't think of any.

SIEGEL: He - I gather - interrupted his flight training a few years ago - six years ago - which might indicate a break for some reason. Did anybody explain why he did that or why he took time off?

MCHUGH: Well, we've seen some reports in German media about that, and the people who would really know are the Lufthansa executives who run the training school where he learned to fly. And Lufthansa's CEO came out today and said he wasn't going to go into the details of his personnel file. I suspect that by the time this investigation is finished and done, which could take months or a year or two, we will know something about that. But at this point that's an - kind of an unanswered question.

SIEGEL: Well, did anyone whom you spoke with in his hometown - did anyone speak of him being at all emotionally unstable or especially sad in recent days?

MCHUGH: Not at all. In fact, kind of the opposite. He had come back in the fall and had told people that he was excited about his new job with Germanwings. And he had what one of the club members said was (Speaking German) which you could translate as seemed happy or had a good feeling about him.

SIEGEL: Well, having asked around about him in his hometown, I mean, what are the questions in your mind that you'd like to see answered about Andreas Lubitz?

MCHUGH: Well, I'd like to see the reasons for the interruption in his flight training, if that in fact occurred. And I suspect that the investigators will get access to whatever psychological or whatever testing Lufthansa did. You don't get to fly a jetliner without other people supervising you. And whether there was any other thing in his life, like financial trouble or romantic trouble or health trouble, that sometimes is behind disturbed actions - but haven't turned up anything along those lines. But at this point, we're sort of grasping at speculation until we know more.

SIEGEL: Well, David McHugh, thank you very much for talking with us.

MCHUGH: You are very welcome.

SIEGEL: David McHugh is a reporter for the Associated Press. And he spoke to us from Montabaur in Germany. That's the hometown of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.