Germanwings, Lufthansa heads remember France crash victims

[LE VERNET, France] Six months to the day after the pilot of a Germanwings A320 jet flew 150 people to their deaths in France, the heads of the firm and parent company Lufthansa gathered near the crash scene on Thursday to remember victims.

Lufthansa's Carsten Spohr and Germanwings' Thomas Winkelmann laid a wreath before a memorial for those who died when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the aircraft into the French Alps, killing everyone on board.

Both executives also visited a chapel and went on to a nearby cemetery where several unidentified victims have been buried.

"It's been exactly six months since this tragic event which happened here and the Lufthansa and Germanwings groups and all its staff are still in deep sorrow," said Mr Spohr.

"I think I speak on behalf of all 120,000 staff of Lufthansa and Germanwings...When this happened, something changed in the company and the company has not been the same," said Mr Spohr, remembering the "terrible day" of the crash.

He noted that "we cannot really ease the pain, but it's our obligation to try whatever we can do." The plane was on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf when Lubitz, believed to be suffering from a psychological disorder, deliberately crashed it into the mountainside.

AFP