Lufthansa 'under no obligation' to report Lubitz's condition

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

Yesterday German newspaper Welt am Sonntag quoted the Federal Aviation Office as saying that it was not informed about Lubitz's previous depression before Flight 4U 9525 crashed.

Lufthansa said in a statement today that, under a regulation that came into effect in April 2013, there are different rules on informing the aviation office about "certain medical issues".

It added, however, that a provision in the regulation "safeguards the position of certain pre-existing certificates of airworthiness for pilots and certificates of medical aviation medical experts" and that doctors can continue to issue extensions to such documents.