Pilot Had Potentially Serious Vision Trouble, Too

New York Times reports it might have ended his career
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 28, 2015 10:04 AM CDT
Updated Mar 28, 2015 10:46 AM CDT
Pilot Had Potentially Serious Vision Trouble, Too
A 2009 photo of Andreas Lubitz.   (AP Photo/Michael Mueller)

The troubling details about Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz keep piling up: The New York Times reports that he sought treatment for an unspecified vision problem that had the potential to end his career. As with his psychological problems, the 27-year-old apparently did not reveal the vision trouble to his employer, says the newspaper, which cites two anonymous investigation officials for the scoop. It's also possible that all of Lubitz's problems were related: One of those officials says the vision trouble, whose details aren't specified, might have been psychosomatic.

The BBC, meanwhile, picks up on a report in a German newspaper that interviewed Lubitz's ex-girlfriend. She quotes him as saying last year, "One day I'm going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember." The woman is a flight attendant identified only as Maria W. If he did bring down the plane, she said, "it is because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa, as captain, and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible." (More Germanwings crash stories.)

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