Country. Who stands to gain . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Stunning new details tonight about the copilot who prosecutors say intentionally crashed an airliner into the french alps killing everyone on board. Based on evidence taken from the copilots home officials now say he had an illness that he concealed from the airline and that he had been declared quote, unfit to work by a doctor. Rippedup medical leave notes were found, including one for the day of the doomed flight. The wall street journal cites a source as saying the copilot was being treated for depression by a psychiatrist and cites another source as saying he did not have a terminal illness. As the grim recovery work continues on the french mountainside where the plane disintegrated, German Airlines are now taking steps to prevent the kind of deliberate cockpit lockout that happened aboard flight 9525. They are now mandating that two crew members must always be inside the cockpit. Our correspondents analyst
3 00 eastern here in the news room, and joining you from new york first up a new and Shocking Development in the downing of the plane, was the copilot who investigatoring deliberately took down the plane, hiding a psychiatric condition . The exgirlfriend of the 27yearold lubitz saying he was a troubled man who often had bad dreams that his plane was going down. Cnn cannot independently confirm that report. This comes after police found ripped up documents in the home of the 27yearold copilot saying he was, quote, unfit to work on a number of days including on tuesday, the very day that lubitz decided to steer that air bus a320 into the southern french alp. What was ailing lubitz thinking thats not yet been revealed. In addition to reports citing sources he was suffering from a Mental Illness, and new report in the New York Times says he was treated for vision problems that may have threaten his career. Lets go straight to the mountainside area where they are staging all this search and
Now as emergency crews try to assess the full extent of the damage, authorities warn the worst may be yet to come with more heavy rape rain sparking devastating floods. Steve heir begin live in texas. Hi, steve. Reporter day two of this rain which simply doesnt stop. Rock port took the brunt of that category four hurricane, 130 Miles Per Hour wind. The entire chunk of this building is just gone, so a lot of buildings you see look like dollhouses where you just took the top off. Were also seeing just piles, not even sure what kind of a home or business was there. And a real problem for First Responders and for anyone trying to get around are these downed power lines. You can see this one dangling over here, a lot more snapped power lines over here, and if you cross the street as well, more snapped power lines. They really are obstacles to those First Responder vehicles. And the wind and the rain is still so bad out, its been really hard for the repair crews to get out here and fix them.
Quite clear yet. At this stage, we expect that the hurricane remains near its current intensity which is category four, category five. Because of the exact location of the turn is not yet known, we do not know which areas in florida will hit the category four or category three conditions. At they do not get that, theyll get category one or two. We do know which coast will get which. The storm surge, and that is where we had the storm surge warning on southeast, southwest and the florida keys for 510 feet of storm surge. The next 36, 48 hours. As hurricane approaches. This is an example and the damage it can do. Southeastern florida, we are looking for 510. Six have been 12 feet as possible on the southwest coast. Our greatest concern will be for the florida keys as they are lowlying islands and 510 feet can inundate all if not most given that there will be large waves on top. We do not expect to have much change in winds, but we do have rainfall 815 feet. 20 inches and flooding in the
Behind me. A new forecast just in for Hurricane Irma as florida braces for a direct hit. Live for us in the cnn weather center. Take it away. It is now back to a category 5 storm. Zinds increased to 160 miles per hour. We anticipated it would get back up to a category 5 but it has strengthened quickly. Now 195 miles per hour. It is skirting so close to cuba. In fact it may end up being over land. We may actually have an official land fall overcuba, if not now, certainly within the next hour. The majority is still over open water and thats what has allowed it to intensify. We expect it to be a category 5 as it crosses over the florida keys and for the main peninsula florida lightly weaken slightly down to a category 4. Were talking maybe 5 miles per hour. So dont focus on a category 4 or 5 over the peninsula. Focus on the winds itself. Because they are going to remain strong even if youre docking a high end category four verse as low end category 5. Weve seen the expansion of hurricane