MONTABAUR, Germany — At the very moment Andreas Lubitz's Airbus A320 crashed into the remote French Alps, the quiet street where he grew up some 400 miles away would have been a scene of unremarkable calm.
Three days later — after the young pilot was identified as the probable perpetrator of the tragedy — the street in the sleepy German town of Montabaur was abuzz. Satellite trucks, tents, cameras, and reporters: Everything pointed to a house at the end of the block, the Lubitz family home.
Inside, investigators had gone through the contents of the house in an attempt to find out why the 27-year-old first officer deliberately set Germanwings Flight 4u9525 on its doomed final journey.
This painstaking search yielded a torn-up sick note on Friday, which officials said suggested Lubitz was concealing an illness from his airline at the time of the crash.
Montabaur is a town of some 13,000 people, an hour south of Cologne. It is best known for the distinctive yellow castle built in 1709 that forms its official logo.
Save for the reporters, the Lubitz family's street was empty — no neighbors and no signs of life. Since the first officer's name was released, the small community has been overrun by the world's media.
Locals locked their doors and closed their curtains, wanting almost nothing to do with the man being accused of mass murder in the sky. Lubitz's parents nowhere to be seen.
IN-DEPTH
- Crash Co-Pilot Lubitz's Homes Are Searched, Items Seized
- Cockpit Voice Recorder Reveals Timeline of Terror
- Testing of Pilots' Mental Health in Spotlight
