German school which lost 16 pupils in French Alps says crash is part of our history now

Record ID: 109782

  • Title: German school which lost 16 pupils in French Alps says crash is part of our history now
  • Date: 22nd March 2016
  • Summary: KELSTERBACH, GERMANY (RECENT - MARCH 17, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF LUFTHANSA AVIATION CENTER IN FRANKFURT SUBURB OF KELSTERBACH
  • Embargoed: 6th April 2016 11:19
  • Keywords: Germanwings crash French Alps Haltern students Lufthansa
  • Location: HAMBURG & HALTERN & KELSTERBACH & BERLIN, GERMANY / SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF., USA
  • City: HAMBURG & HALTERN & KELSTERBACH & BERLIN, GERMANY / SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF., USA
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Air Accidents,Disaster/Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVA0044A0DKCN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Days before the first anniversary of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps which killed 150 people, a school in Germany which lost 16 students and two teachers said the events on March 24, 2015 were now part of their school's history.
    "What happened should be present," headmaster Ulrich Wessel of Joseph-Koenig-secondary school in Haltern, north of Dortmund, said.
    "It is part of our school's history and with this history, we want to create our school's future. We want to remember in a dignified way, yet look ahead," Wessel said.
    German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is suspected of deliberately crashing the jet into a mountainside during a flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf on March 24.
    Lubitz had suffered from severe depression in the past and a computer found in his home showed he had used the Internet to research ways of committing suicide in the days leading up to the crash. Prosecutors also found torn-up sick notes at his home showing he should not have flown on the day of the flight.
    Investigators suspect Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit before putting the plane into descent and increasing the jet's speed several times as it went down, while the pilot tried to force his way into the cockpit and passengers screamed.
    Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said on the sidelines of its recent results annual news conference that the crash "did change us and we cannot and do not want to return to business as usual."
    The German national carrier's chief executive Carsten Spohr said that the company was doing "as much as possible for the relatives on these emotionally difficult days of the anniversary. We are helping with psychological treatment, logistics for everyone we invited to the south of France but also of course with material compensation."
    Spohr estimated that Lufthansa would pay each victim's family "at least 100,000 euros... in many, many cases considerably more to replace the material damage which occurred."
    "But all of this cannot compensate the grief we unfortunately brought upon 150 families."
    Last June, Lufthansa had offered 25,000 euros per victim for the pain and suffering.
    The 25,000-euro offer was on top of 50,000 euros per passenger already paid as immediate financial assistance to relatives.
    In August, the families of passengers killed in the Germanwings crash took legal action against Lufthansa in the United States after rejecting the carrier's compensation offer as inadequate, Bild am Sonntag said at the time, citing the families' lawyer.
    Speaking in Berlin last week, lawyer Elmar Giemulla told Reuters Television "we are not suing Lufthansa or Germanwings but Lufthansa's flight school which is based in Phoenix, Arizona."
    "This is not just any flight school Lufthansa is sending its aspiring pilots to. This is Lufthansa's flight school, it is part of Lufthansa's educational system. All pilots selected and trained by Lufthansa must undergo training at this flight school," Giemulla said.
    United States law provides for large payouts for emotional damages, unlike German law.
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