A state prosecutor says the co-pilot with a history of depression who crashed a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps had reached out to dozens of doctors before the disaster.

A damning EU-funded report claims low-cost airlines’ work practices for pilots compromises safety, writes Ann Cahill Europe Correspondent

The co-pilot on Germanwings Flight 4525 tried a controlled descent on another flight that morning, French air accident investigators have said.

Officials at the US Federal Aviation Administration questioned the mental fitness of the Germanwings pilot who crashed a plane in the French Alps some five years before the tragedy.

To improve airline safety, maybe we need to remove the pilots.

Relatives of people killed in the Germanwings plane crash have gathered in Cologne for a memorial service.

German police are looking into whether a woman claimed to be a relative of a victim of last month’s Germanwings crash to get free flights to southern France.

European Union authorities were looking in to German airline safety procedures on “a number of issues” well ahead of the March 24 Germanwings crash after a standard inspection by its aviation safety agency questioned some procedures.

Lufthansa has indicated that it was under no obligation to report to Germany’s national aviation authority the fact that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz suffered from depression several years ago.

The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight repeatedly sped up the plane as he used the automatic pilot to descend the A320 into the Alps, the French air accident investigation agency said.

Data from the second black box found in the wreckage of the Germanwings flight that crashed last week in the French Alps appears to confirm that the co-pilot acted deliberately.

The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appears to have researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days before he flew the plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people, German prosecutors said.

Germany is setting up a task force to examine safety issues such as the cockpit door mechanism and medical testing for pilots in the wake of last week’s Germanwings crash.

Investigators have found mobile phones amid the debris of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps, but the phones have not yet produced any clues about what happened.

Just over a week after a Germanwings plane crashed into the French Alps, investigators have finished retrieving human remains from the wreckage.

The heads of Lufthansa and its low-cost airline Germanwings are visiting the site of the crash that killed 150 people, amid mounting questions about the co-pilot and how much his employers knew about his mental health.

A video of the last moments on the doomed Germanwings plane has been found on a mobile phone memory card at the crash site in the French Alps, according to reports.

French aviation investigators have said they will examine "systemic weaknesses" such as cockpit entry rules and psychological screening procedures that could have led to the Germanwings crash.

Lufthansa says its insurers are setting aside $300m (€276.45m) to deal with possible costs resulting from the French Alps crash in which 150 people died.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately crashed the Germanwings Airbus into the French Alps, was in therapy for suicidal tendencies before getting his pilot’s licence, Germany’s state prosecutor has said.

European investigators are focusing on the psychological state of the 27-year-old German co-pilot who deliberately crashed an Airbus carrying 150 people into an Alpine mountainside, according to a French police official.

The girlfriend of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is pregnant with his child, according to reports.

There are reports that scientists at the site of the Germanwings plane crash may have found the DNA of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.

Pilots with a history of depression should not be banned from flying commercial jets, according to a leading British psychiatrist, in a warning against a knee-jerk reaction to the French Alps air disaster.

It has been claimed the co-pilot accused of deliberately crashing a plane in France had vision problems.

A member of a gliding club in the French Alps, where a Germanwings plane crashed this week, has said the co-pilot of the plane frequented the area as a child with his parents.

An ex-girlfriend of the co-pilot who deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane, killing all 150 on board, has told how he vowed to “do something” history would remember him by, according to reports.

Many airlines worldwide have begun to adopt rules similar to those put in place by the Irish Aviation Authority a decade ago to ensure there are always two crew members on the flight decks of passenger jets while airborne.

Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings could face liabilities well above the typical ceiling in airline crashes for the passengers who died on Tuesday when one of its jets was flown into an Alpine mountain, some aviation lawyers said.

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have hidden evidence of an illness from his employers, including having been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain.

Lufthansa is offering immediate aid of up to €50,000 (£36,500) per passenger to relatives of the Germanwings crash that killed 150 people.

Lufthansa could face “unlimited” compensation claims for the crash that killed 150 people in the French Alps and it would be difficult, even counter-productive, for the German carrier to try to avoid liability, experts say.

French police working to recover remains from the Germanwings crash site say they have recovered between 400 and 600 pieces of remains from the 150 people who died.

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have hidden evidence of an illness from his employers, including having been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain, prosecutors said.

The Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe has said he expects a review of Ireland's aviation regulations in light of this week's

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Police have searched the homes of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz in two German cities in the hunt for an explanation for why he may have crashed a passenger plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

The co-pilot who deliberately crashed the Germanwings jet into a remote Alpine mountainside reset the autopilot to take the doomed plane from 38,000 feet to just 100ft, it has emerged.

Airlines are changing procedures to ensure two crew members are in the cockpit at all times during flights following the French Alps plane disaster.

The Germanwings airline said it is stunned and “utterly baffled” as to why one of its pilots deliberately crashed a plane into the Alps killing himself and 149 other people.

The French Alps plane disaster took a dramatic turn after black box recordings pointed to the co-pilot deliberately crashing the Airbus A320 into the mountains.

THE picture of a young man, believed to be 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, sitting calmly beside San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is a classic image of the proverbial ‘boy next door’.

Andreas Guenter Lubitz, the co-pilot believed to have deliberately flown the Germanwings plane into the Alps, was a trusted flight officer whom aviation authorities considered a “positive example”.

Europe’s third largest budget airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, says it plans to adopt new rules requiring two crew members to always be present in the cockpit of a flying aircraft.

Investigators will delve in to the personal life of Andreas Lubitz to uncover any clues about his mental state after the revelation that the co-pilot deliberately crashed his own plane, an aviation psychologist said.