MONTABAUR, Germany — Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appeared happy and healthy to acquaintances, but a picture emerged Friday of a man who hid evidence of an illness from his employers – including a torn-up doctor’s note that would have kept him off work the day authorities say he crashed Flight 9525 into an Alpine mountainside.

As German prosecutors sought to piece together the puzzle of why Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit and crashed the Airbus A320, police in the French Alps toiled to retrieve the shattered remains of the 150 people killed Tuesday.

Searches conducted at Lubitz’s homes in Duesseldorf and in the town of Montabaur turned up documents pointing to “an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment,” but no suicide note was found, said Ralf Herrenbrueck, a spokesman for the Duesseldorf prosecutors’ office.

They included ripped-up sick notes covering the day of the crash, which “support the current preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues,” Herrenbrueck said.

SICK LEAVE EASILY APPROVED

Doctors commonly issue employees in Germany with such notes excusing them from work, even for minor illnesses, and workers hand them to their employers. Doctors are obliged to abide by medical secrecy unless their patient explicitly tells them he or she plans to commit an act of violence.

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Prosecutors didn’t specify what illness Lubitz may have been suffering from. German media reported that the 27-year-old had suffered from depression.

The Duesseldorf University Hospital said Friday that Lubitz had been a patient there over the past two months and last went in for a “diagnostic evaluation” on March 10. It denied reports it had treated Lubitz for depression.

Neighbors described a man whose physical health was superb.

“He definitely did not smoke. He really took care of himself. He always went jogging,” said a neighbor, Johannes Rossmann.

People in Montabaur who knew Lubitz told The Associated Press that he had been thrilled with his job at Germanwings and seemed very happy.

On Friday, no one was seen coming or going from his family’s large slate-roofed two-story house in Montabaur as journalists remained outside. Mayor Edmund Schaaf appealed to the media to show “consideration.”

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LUBITZ CLEARED FOR FLIGHT

“Independent of whether the accusations against the co-pilot are true or not, we have sympathy for his family,” he said.

Germanwings said that both pilots on the plane had medical clearance, and it had received no sick note for the day of the crash. Medical checkups take place once a year.

A German aviation official told the AP that Lubitz’s file at the country’s Federal Aviation Office contained a notation that meant he needed “specific regular medical examination.” Such a notation could refer to either a physical or mental condition but the official said Lubitz’s file did not specify which.

German media have painted a picture of a man with a history of depression who had received psychological treatment, and who may have been set off by a falling-out with his girlfriend.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had issued Lubitz a third-class medical certificate, meaning that he wasn’t found to be suffering from another mental health condition that “makes the person unable to safely perform the duties or exercise the privileges” of a pilot’s license.

Carsten Spohr, the CEO of Germanwings’ parent company, Lufthansa, has said there was a “several-month” gap in Lubitz’s training six years ago, but didn’t elaborate. Following the disruption, he said, Lubitz “not only passed all medical tests but also his flight training, all flying tests and checks.”

Prosecutors said there was no indication of any political or religious motivation for Lubitz’s actions on the Barcelona-Duesseldorf flight.

Also Friday, the European Aviation Safety Agency recommended that airlines always have two people in the cockpit. The move came after several airlines, including Germanwings parent Lufthansa, pledged to impose the measure.


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