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Lufthansa Offers Compensation to Families of Germanwings Crash Victims Lufthansa Offers Compensation to Families of Germanwings Crash Victims
(about 3 hours later)
PARIS — More than three months after a Germanwings airliner crashed into a French mountainside, killing everyone aboard, the airline’s parent company, Lufthansa, made its first proposal to pay for emotional damages on Tuesday, offering the German victims’ families $28,000 each. Lawyers for the relatives immediately dismissed the figure as inadequate. PARIS — More than three months after a Germanwings airliner crashed into a French mountainside, killing everyone aboard, the airline’s parent company, Lufthansa, made its first proposal to pay for emotional damages on Tuesday, offering the German victims’ families $28,000 each. Lawyers for the relatives immediately dismissed the figure as inadequate.
The offer came on the same day that a task force led by the German government presented its initial recommendations for improving the monitoring of pilots’ mental health, as well as systems and procedures governing access to the cockpit.The offer came on the same day that a task force led by the German government presented its initial recommendations for improving the monitoring of pilots’ mental health, as well as systems and procedures governing access to the cockpit.
French investigators say that the 27-year-old co-pilot of the Germanwings flight, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane, an Airbus A320, after locking the captain out of the cockpit. Mr. Lubitz and the 149 others on the flight, from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, were killed. Prosecutors in France and Germany have said Mr. Lubitz had a history of severe depression and in the weeks leading up to the crash had sought out numerous doctors for treatment of anxiety, sleeplessness and a perceived problem with his vision. French investigators say that the 27-year-old co-pilot of the Germanwings flight, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane, an Airbus A320, after locking the captain out of the cockpit. Mr. Lubitz and the 149 others on the flight, from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany, were killed.
Prosecutors in France and Germany have said Mr. Lubitz had a history of severe depression and in the weeks leading up to the crash had sought out numerous doctors for treatment of anxiety, sleeplessness and a perceived problem with his vision.
In a telephone briefing with reporters on Tuesday, officials from Lufthansa and Germanwings outlined the details of the compensation proposal sent to the families of the 72 victims from Germany, where, under current law, relatives of accident victims may claim only limited economic damages and are not entitled to compensation for emotional pain and suffering.In a telephone briefing with reporters on Tuesday, officials from Lufthansa and Germanwings outlined the details of the compensation proposal sent to the families of the 72 victims from Germany, where, under current law, relatives of accident victims may claim only limited economic damages and are not entitled to compensation for emotional pain and suffering.
The Germanwings offer includes 25,000 euros, or $28,000, in compensation per victim for pain and suffering in the minutes before the crash, on top of payments of €50,000 per family that were made in the initial weeks after the March 24 crash to cover funeral and other immediate expenses. The airline also said it would pay a further €10,000 in emotional damages to each victim’s immediate family members, limited to parents, children, and spouses or partners that lived together. Siblings, grandparents and grandchildren will not be compensated unless they are able to demonstrate specific hardship.The Germanwings offer includes 25,000 euros, or $28,000, in compensation per victim for pain and suffering in the minutes before the crash, on top of payments of €50,000 per family that were made in the initial weeks after the March 24 crash to cover funeral and other immediate expenses. The airline also said it would pay a further €10,000 in emotional damages to each victim’s immediate family members, limited to parents, children, and spouses or partners that lived together. Siblings, grandparents and grandchildren will not be compensated unless they are able to demonstrate specific hardship.
Lufthansa said compensation offers to the victims of other nationalities would be made in the coming weeks. The crash victims came from more than 17 countries. Lufthansa said compensation offers to the victims of other nationalities would be made in the coming weeks. The victims came from more than 17 countries.
Elmar M. Giemulla, a lawyer in Berlin who represents relatives of roughly 30 of the German crash victims, described the airline’s compensation offer as “completely inadequate” and said he would advise his clients to reject it.Elmar M. Giemulla, a lawyer in Berlin who represents relatives of roughly 30 of the German crash victims, described the airline’s compensation offer as “completely inadequate” and said he would advise his clients to reject it.
“It is kind of an offense, in my view,” Mr. Giemulla said by phone. “We are talking here about emotions and the destruction of lives.”“It is kind of an offense, in my view,” Mr. Giemulla said by phone. “We are talking here about emotions and the destruction of lives.”
“Lufthansa has a moral responsibility beyond what the law says,” Mr. Giemulla added. “Mr. Lubitz was their employee. It was the airline that chose him to fly that plane, not the passengers.”“Lufthansa has a moral responsibility beyond what the law says,” Mr. Giemulla added. “Mr. Lubitz was their employee. It was the airline that chose him to fly that plane, not the passengers.”
Lufthansa and Germanwings stressed that the compensation payments represented only a portion of the total amount that the group had set aside to provide longer-term support to the victims’ next of kin. The airlines have also established a €7.8 million trust to help cover education-related costs for children and young adults who lost one or both parents in the crash. A separate fund, worth up to €6 million, would also be established to help finance aid projects proposed by the victims’ relatives over a period of three years.Lufthansa and Germanwings stressed that the compensation payments represented only a portion of the total amount that the group had set aside to provide longer-term support to the victims’ next of kin. The airlines have also established a €7.8 million trust to help cover education-related costs for children and young adults who lost one or both parents in the crash. A separate fund, worth up to €6 million, would also be established to help finance aid projects proposed by the victims’ relatives over a period of three years.
James Healy-Pratt, a partner and head of the aviation department at Stewarts Law in London, described the airline’s proposal as “disappointing” and said he expected that many families would be driven to seek damages in courts outside Germany, possibly including the United States, where payouts can reach into the millions of dollars. Mr. Lubitz received some of his pilot training at a Lufthansa-owned flight school in Arizona. James Healy-Pratt, a partner and head of the aviation department at Stewarts Law in London, described the airline’s proposal as “disappointing” and said he expected that many families would be driven to seek damages in courts outside Germany, possibly including the United States, where payouts can reach into the millions of dollars.
”No amount of compensation will ever bring back loved ones, but meaningful, equal and fair compensation does matter to many families,” said Mr. Healy-Pratt, whose firm represents several German and Spanish families of the Germanwings victims. “No amount of compensation will ever bring back loved ones, but meaningful, equal and fair compensation does matter to many families,” said Mr. Healy-Pratt, whose firm represents several German and Spanish families of the Germanwings victims.
Lufthansa’s proposal came as a task force made up of German aviation, medical and government experts called for enhanced training of flight doctors in the area of mental-health monitoring, as well as for the broader adoption across the industry of confidential peer-support groups where colleagues suffering from psychological stress can seek help without fear of losing their jobs.
”Depression today is a widespread illness which in most cases — or so the experts have depicted it to me — can be well treated,” Germany’s transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said at a news conference in Berlin. “And so it is a significant and important matter for us to encourage those affected to be open, and to discuss this illness with doctors.”
The group concluded that there was more potential gain for aviation security from adjusting or bolstering certain practices in determining how fit pilots are to fly than from short-term improvements to the construction of cockpit doors, or changing regulation on their use.
It nonetheless welcomed the temporary recommendation of European aviation safety regulators that two crew members be present in the cockpit at all times. The so-called two-person rule, which was standard in the United States and other parts of the world after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was not widely adopted in Europe before the Germanwings crash. The task force recommended that the practice — which pilot and flight attendants’ unions have said could eventually be lifted — be re-evaluated after a full year of application.
Asked whether the task force had reached its conclusions because it had uncovered specific shortcomings in the Germanwings case, both Mr. Dobrindt and Matthias von Randow, the director of the German Aviation Association, said this was not the case, but did not provide further details.
The German task force said it would submit its findings to European and international regulators. Along with the European Commission, both the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States have set up similar working groups aimed at reviewing existing standards and procedures for pilot oversight as well as cockpit door security systems.
The European task force is due to publish its own recommendations in mid-July, while the F.A.A. expects to submit its findings by the end of the year.