THE bodies of the Spanish passengers who lost their lives in the Germanwings crash in the Alps arrived back in Barcelona last night for collection by their next of kin.
Nearly three months after the tragedy, when the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf went down in the French mountains, families of the deceased are now able to give their loved ones a proper burial.
Their return comes just as investigations reveal that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had visited 41 doctors in the five years before he plunged the craft into the massif killing himself and 149 others.
Lubitz, 27, whose dream of becoming captain on long-haul Lufthansa flights with Germanwings' parent company was turning into an obsession, had been diagnosed with eyesight problems, insomnia, depression and even psychosis.
He had seen 41 different GPs, psychiatrists, neurologists and ophthalmologists since 2010, a year after obtaining his pilot's licence, according to the French prosecutor Brice Robin who is heading up inquiries into the tragedy.
The co-pilot had had appointments with seven different doctors in the month before the crash and had been signed off sick for 10 days, but had torn up the GPs' notes.
His eyesight problems, initially said to be due to a detached retina, have transpired to have had 'no organic origin', meaning they may have been psychosomatic.
Lubitz told eye specialists that he saw objects 'between 30% and 35% darker' than the normal range.
Crucially, however, at least one doctor diagnosed him with 'threatening psychosis' after interviewing the young pilot 'for a long time'.
One of the specialists who examined Lubitz just days before the crash reported that he found the co-pilot 'burnt out, insecure, tense and centred obsessively on his illness' and finally concluded that his 'instability' meant he was 'unfit to fly'.
But this information never reached the airline, due to doctor-patient confidentiality rules.
Brice Robin admitted that it is 'difficult to balance' this confidentiality with any possible duty of disclosure based upon a patient's having a high-risk job, such as flying a plane.
But he added that Lubitz's parents, whom he lived with, 'ought to have noticed' that their son suffered mental health problems.
Remains of packets of anti-depressants and anti-insomnia drugs had been found in the house after Lubitz brought the aircraft down, although results of toxicology examinations on his body have not been released as yet.
He is said to have researched different types of medication, methods of suicide, and how to lock the cabin door from the inside, on the internet.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com