MAINZ, Germany — The family of the pilot who deliberately crashed a Germanwings passenger jet into the French Alps placed a notice in their local newspaper calling him “lovable and precious” and thanking neighbors for their support.
Relatives of Andreas Lubitz expressed gratitude to the residents of Montabaur, Germany, for “the solidarity and the protected space you have created for us.”
Prosecutors said Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit during a bathroom break and flew the Airbus A320 into a mountainside, killing 150 people. Investigators said the 27-year-old suffered from severe depression and may have feared losing his job at the time of the crash on March 24, 2015.
“We want to thank all who supported and helped us in a year full of shock and fear, incomprehension, unrest, speechlessness, despair and unresolved grief, to bear our so very large loss and endure everything that broke down over us,” said family’s notice, which was published Saturday in the Westerwaelder Zeitung newspaper. “Thank you for every line written, every consoling word, every visit, every loving or silent embrace, each flower on his grave."
The announcement, which was also reported by the newspaper Bild, referred to Lubitz only by his first name but showed a photograph of him and was signed: “Your mom, your dad and your brother.”
They wrote that they have lost a “lovable and precious person.”