Lufthansa's chief executive has said it will take "a long, long time" to understand what led to a deadly crash in the Alps last week.
But he refused to say what the airline knew about the mental health of the co-pilot suspected of deliberately destroying the plane.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr and the head of its low-cost airline Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann, were visiting the crash area amid mounting questions about how much the airlines knew about co-pilot Andreas Lubitz's psychological state and why they have not released more information about it.
The two men lay flowers and then stood silently facing a stone monument to the plane's 150 victims.
The monument looks toward the mountains where the Germanwings A320 crashed and shattered into thousands of pieces on March 24 and bears a memorial message in German, Spanish, French and English.
Mr Spohr said the airline is "learning more every day" about what might have led to the crash but "it will take a long, long time to understand how this could happen".
He then deflected questions from reporters at the site in Seyne-les-Alpes.
After listening to the plane's voice data recorder, investigators believe Lubitz intentionally crashed the plane.
Lufthansa has acknowledged it knew Lubitz had suffered from an episode of "severe depression" before he finished his flight training at the German airline, but that he has passed all his medical checks since.
German prosecutors say Lubitz's medical records from before he received his pilot's licence referred to "suicidal tendencies", but visits to doctors since then showed no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression against others.
The revelations intensify questions about how much Lufthansa and its insurers will pay in damages for the passengers who died - and about how thoroughly the aviation industry and government regulators screen pilots for psychological problems.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article