Victorian man who lost wife and son in Germanwings crash reportedly suing US flight school

An Australian man whose wife and son were among the 150 people killed when Germanwings Flight 9525 was deliberately crashed into the French Alps is reportedly suing the US flight school that trained the individual responsible.

Victorian man David Friday is suing Lufthansa’s Airline Training Centre Arizona for failing to detect any problems with Andreas Lubitz, the German co-pilot who caused the crash, Fairfax Media reported.

Lubitz dove the jet into the ground 100km north-west of Nice on March 24 last year after he locked his co-pilot out of the cockpit.

The plane had departed from Barcelona and was scheduled to land in Dusseldorf.

Mr Friday’s wife Carol, 68, and their son Greig, 29, died in the crash.

“They were loved and appreciated by so many people. If their loss had been due to some genuine accident it may have been easier to bear,” Mr Friday told the newspaper.

“We feel legal action against the flight school, who were aware of the pilot’s mental problems, will ensure that they never again allow a pilot with known dangerous mental problems to be licensed to pilot a passenger plane.”

In response to the crash, aviation authorities around the world imposed rules requiring two pilots to be inside the aircraft cockpit at all times.