Relatives of the victims of the Germanwings plane crash that occurred in southeastern France in 2015 have filed a lawsuit against Germany. This was reported on Tuesday by the news site Zeit, citing a representative from the district court of Braunschweig (Lower Saxony).
Specifically, the lawsuit is directed against the German Federal Aviation Administration. According to the agency, 32 people are seeking compensation for moral damages amounting to €1.2 million. The lawsuit was filed in Braunschweig, where the department’s headquarters is located. The trial date has not yet been set, mentions our associate media, Aeroin.
Previously, the relatives of the victims had lodged complaints against the parent company of Germanwings, Lufthansa, in the high regional court of Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia) and in the district court of Frankfurt am Main (Hesse).
However, the allegations were rejected. The judges noted that the Federal Aviation Administration, not Lufthansa, was responsible for conducting a medical examination and verifying the airworthiness of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who deliberately crashed the plane into the hill. «The state is obligated to conduct medical supervision,» the judges stated.
The Germanwings Crash
On March 24, 2015, a Germanwings A320 passenger plane en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed in southeastern France. There were 150 people on board the jet: 144 passengers and six crew members, all of whom died.
According to the investigation, the accident was caused by the co-pilot, who deliberately started to descend and directed the plane straight into a hill. Lubitz was suicidal, had been attended by psychologists, had personal life problems, was taking antidepressants, but the airline knew nothing about their employee’s problems.
Towards the end of 2015, Lufthansa integrated the operations of Germanwings with those of Eurowings, subsequently proceeding to the definitive closure of the company in 2020, leaving the latter as the low-cost carrier of the German group.
