Girlfriend of Germanwings co-pilot is pregnant

Lubitz was planning to get married, according to reports. Picture: Getty

Teacher Kathrin Goldbach, who is in her 20s, left Germany in the aftermath of the crash, thinking her fiance was one of the innocent victims.

According to the German newspaper Bild, she arrived in France to instead find he had been responsible for the crash.

It is believed that she told pupils at her school near Dusseldorf some time ago that she was “going to be a mum”.

She was said to be looking forward to her new life as a parent – and even planned to marry Lubitz as they planned their future life together.

The news emerged yesterday as forensic teams confirmed they had isolated 78 DNA strands from body parts recovered from the crash site in the French Alps.

Frech prosecutor Brice Robin said that an access road was being built for all-terrain vehicles to reach the site where 150 people died.

Investigators have faced a huge task in trying to recover bodies and search for a second black box at the site, which is extremely hard to access and has required specialist mountain police to accompany search teams.

The pastor of the Lutheran church in Lubitz’s hometown held a service yesterday to commemorate the crash victims and support their families. Pastor Michael Dietrich said that the community stands by Lubitz and his family, despite the fact that prosecutors blame the 27-year-old co-pilot for causing the plane crash in southern France.

The town of Montabaur has been rattled by the revelation that Lubitz, who first learned to fly at a nearby glider club, may have intentionally caused Tuesday’s crash of Germanwings Flight 9525.

“For us, it makes it particularly difficult that the only victim from Montabaur is suspected to have caused this tragedy, this crash – although this has not been finally confirmed, but a lot is indicating that – and we have to face this,” pastor Mr Dietrich said.

“The co-pilot, the family belong to our community, and we stand by this, and we embrace them and will not hide this, and want to support the family in particular,” Mr Dietrich said.

French prosecutors haven’t questioned the family yet “out of decency and respect for their pain,” Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.

Authorities are trying to understand what made Lubitz lock his fellow pilot out of the cockpit and ignore his pleas to open the door before slamming the plane into a mountainside on what should have been a routine flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

Mr Dietrich said he knew Lubitz as a teenager, when he attended religious education 13 years ago, and his mother, who worked as a part-time organist in the community.

“When I worked with her or talked to her, it was very good and very harmonious. We had good conversations,” Mr Dietrich said.

“I know her and her family. This does not make sense. It is incomprehensible for me, for us, for everyone who knew her and the family.”

Yesterday Pope Francis prayed for the victims of the crash at the start of Holy Week.