Pilot Told Airline of Severe Depression

Lufthansa today revealed that the pilot accused of intentionally crashing the Germanwings plane had informed the airline in 2009 about a "previous episode of severe depression," reports CNN. Andreas Lubitz made the admission to explain why he had taken several months off from the airline's flight-training school, reports AP. He returned to the school and went on to become a pilot for Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings. Lufthansa says it made the discovery while investigating all its records about Lubitz and has turned them over to prosecutors. (Yesterday, it emerged that Lubitz had been treated for suicidal tendencies before becoming a pilot.)

Also today, two overseas publications say they've obtained cell phone video from the Germanwings wreckage that captures the final moments aboard the plane, reports USA Today. A French police official, however, says that he knows of no such video. Neither Paris Match nor Bild posted any actual footage, though they report hearing cries of "My God" in different languages. "The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people," says Paris Match. "But the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them." Earlier accounts said screams could be heard in the background of the cockpit audio, along with sounds of the locked-out pilot attempting to break down the door. (More Germanwings crash stories.)