Relatives of Germanwings victims seek compensation for crash
Posted May 06, 2020 7:00 am
BERLIN (AP) - A court in Germany is considering demands for compensation brought against Lufthansa by eight people who lost loved ones in the crash of its budget airline Germanwings five years ago.
The plaintiffs want a higher payout than Lufthansa and its U.S.-based flight school have offered, arguing that they allowed pilot Andreas Lubitz to complete his aviation training despite evidence of mental illness.
Officials in France and Germany concluded that Lubitz intentionally crashed the Airbus A320 into a French mountainside on March 24, 2015, killing all 150 people on board flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
The trial starting Wednesday before the court in the western city of Essen is expected to last several days.
FILE - In this March 24, 2015 file picture a rescue helicopter flies over debris of a Germanwings passenger jet, near Seyne-les-Alpes,Frances. Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the jet into the French Alps , while en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, killing all 150 people on board. A court in Germany is considering demands for compensation brought against Lufthansa by eight people who lost loved ones in the crash of its budget airline Germanwings five years ago.(AP Photo/Claude Paris,file)
The Associated Press
Eighteen candles for the 18 victims are lit in the Joseph-Konig-Gymnasium on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Haltern am See, Germany. Five years ago, on March 24, 2015, the Germanwings Airbus flight number 4U9525 crashed on a mountain in the Alps killing all 150 passengers onboard. Among the dead were 16 students and two teachers from Haltern, who came from a student exchange in Spain. (Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa via AP)
The Associated Press
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