Airbus crash pilot Andreas Lubitz had been planning a spectacular gesture to make everyone "remember" who he was, it was claimed on Friday night.

An ex-girlfriend of the Germanwings pilot who crashed his plane in the French Alps, killing all 149 others on board, described him as "tormented" and able to hide secrets.

Maria, 26 (not her real name), told Bild newspaper that when she heard about the crash she remembered that he had said he was going do something "that would change the system" and "make everyone remember" him.

She added: "It didn't make sense at the time but now it all does."

Maria, who is thought to have met Lubitz at work, said he would wake up at night screaming in terror: "We're going down."

Her claim follows revelations by the Dusseldorf prosecutor that Lubitz had been declared unfit, or unwell, in the days leading up to his last fatal flight on Tuesday, but that he had hidden this from his employer.

It emerged that Lubitz tore up a sick note signing him off work on the day of the crash, and kept it a secret from the airline. He had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dusseldorf as recently as March 10, just two weeks before the tragedy, but had also concealed this from his employers.

Maria added: "He knew how to hide what was really going on and how hide it from other people."

She added: "When I heard about the crash, there was just a tape playing in my head of what he said: 'One day I will do something that will change the system and everyone will then know my name and remember me.'

"I did not know what he meant by that at the time, but now it's clear."

German investigators refused to confirm whether the sick note, or the hospital treatment, related to depression, though Lubitz is reported to have taken time out from his pilot training after suffering mental illness before he finally qualified.

As the hunt continued for a motive for Lubitz's mass murder, it also emerged that he had recently split from his girlfriend, and appeared to have made a desperate last attempt to win her back by buying her a brand new Audi car only weeks ago. She appeared to have said no, as the car was never delivered.

Following Thursday's disclosures about Lubitz locking the captain out of the cockpit and putting flight 9525 into a terminal dive, a picture has emerged of Lubitz as a highly secretive man tormented by mental and possibly physical illness, as well as his failed relationship.

A spokesman for the prosecutors' office in Dusseldorf, which carried out searches of Lubitz's apartment in the city and his parents' home in the nearby town of Montabaur, where he spent much of his time, said: "Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors.

"The fact there are sick notes saying he was unable to work, among other things, that were found torn up, which were recent and even from the day of the crime, support the assumption based on the preliminary examination that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and his professional colleagues."

They refused to disclose the nature of Lubitz's recent illness, but he is known to have taken a break from flight training in 2009 after he was diagnosed with a "major depressive episode" and anxiety attacks and listed "unable to fly".

The Telegraph, London