The Conversation (0)
This week the world has been horrified by the Germanwings plane crash that killed 150 people in the French Alps.
That horror was compounded on Thursday with the news that the 28-year-old German co-pilot had "intentionally" flown the Airbus A320 into a mountainside.
The exact motive for Andreas Lubitz's actions is still unknown, but that hasn't stopped the media from racing to conclusions.
Many reports have speculated about Lubitz's mental health after one of his former classmates told journalists that he had suffered from depression.
How the story was approached
When revealing the identity of Lubitz on Thursday, French investigator Brice Robin was immediately questioned about the co-pilot's ethnicity.
Robin replied: "He was a German national and I don't know his ethnic background. He is not listed as a terrorist, if that is what you are insinuating."
Failing to find a label there, the press then jumped on rumours about Lubitz's mental health, perhaps best summed up by this round-up of front pages:
Or this "Madman in the cockpit" effort from the Sun:
While in Scotland:
Jumping to conclusions
News emerged that Lubitz had taken a prolonged and "unexplained" break from flight training in 2009 in which he worked as a flight attendant. German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Lubitz's former classmates said this was because of "burnout syndrome", which was presented as the reason he decided to kill 149 people.
However, Carsten Spohr, the chief executive of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, explained that the break in training was "not unusual" and that Lubitz had passed all tests before returning. "His flying abilities were flawless," he added.
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